LoS Birth of a Hero: The Condemned
by Insane-Randomness
Summary: Second Book of the Trilogy, Birth of a Hero. Find me at Insane-Randomness on DeviantART
1. Chapter 1

_Continued from The Legend of Spyro: The Redeemer Ch18..._

**Legend of Spyro: Rise of a Legend**

_**Act II: The Condemned**_

**"Only through many hardships**

**Is a man stripped to his very foundations**

**And in such a state**

**Devoid of distractions**

**Is his soul free to soar**

**And in this**

**He is closest to God"**

**- The Scriptures, Book of Missions 42:5**

"Oye! Wake up, bastard!" Wham, wham, wham. Ezio missed the times when Nova woke him up with a simple nudge with her nose. Wham, wham, wham, wham.

"All right! Shut the hell up! I'm a comin'!" Ezio shouted leaping up from his bed, and throwing the same pair of cargo pants and tank top on. He quickly changed the bandages bound around the entire length of his torso, then slapped the door. There was a metallic click as the door was unlocked, and the door slid smoothly on oiled rails to the side. Smaug stood there, staring down his muzzle at Ezio, and scowling. Ezio scowled back, and leaned against the door frame.

"How's that wound holding up?" Smaug sneered.

"It's not; you know my days are numbered. What did you want?" Ezio snarled at the enemy.

"The Dark Lord has requested an audience with you. It is an – "Smaug started, but Ezio cut him off.

"It's anything but an honor for me Smaug. Best watch your back bastard. You might bite, but I bite back." Ezio said, strolling past the massive lieutenant and into the hall way that contained at least a dozen other prison cells, "No need to tell me where to go, I know the way."

"Still doesn't mean I'm gonna stop following you." Smaug growled, "And you know that if it weren't for his orders, you would be dead right now."

"Better dead than smelling your foul breath. And we both know I'm out of your league." Ezio said, stopping and turning towards the dragon, "But hey, I've had a rough week, and I could let off a bit of steam. You wanna start something? Go ahead."

Smaug scowled down at the tiny human, and he shuffled his claws as if he would love to do nothing more than comply with Ezio's wishes and put this insolent mortal in his place. Instead though, he turned sharply and strode away, and at the end of the hallway, stood holding open a large door that was at least an inch thick worth of steel. Ezio strolled into the bright sunlight, and the shadow of Saturn's rings resplendent in the background. The sun was considerably smaller here, and the gravity much less on Titan, but the near planet like conditions, and the thick atmosphere, which was thicker than earths made up for it. The planet like moon was indeed quite similar to the beeches on earth. Ezio had gotten a shock the first time he had seen the view. He was the first person to land on something other than the earth system, and could easily have gone down in history if he had documented everything. Ezio had also been scared out of his mind by the sheer number of troops on Titan. Ezio didn't know their exact numbers, but he knew that there were well more than the earth's population. The entire planet was dotted with constant portals that were ignited by Malefor. The portals were self-sustaining, and made transport from one paradise island to the next instantaneous. The two presently walked up to one, and the guards on either side suddenly went to attention as they saw their commanding officer. Ezio had also learned quickly that these troops were not to be trifled with. They were good, no doubting that, and had training in all areas of combat.

Ezio had been confused at first when he saw Saturn through the blue sky on Titan, so close. IT didn't take long for the fourth regiment commander to explain it to him. The commander had taken a liking to him right away, despite the fact that Ezio had killed many of the Orcs kind.

"I'm serious now brother. Do not regret past actions, you had no choice. But if you try and kill one of us, then I won't be so easy." The creature had said, tapping his nose knowingly. Ezio had found that most of the population was enslaved by Malefor, except the shadow force lieutenants. The shadow dragons were always fiercely loyal to Smaug and Malefor. The planet however was almost pleasant to Ezio.

"It's because of the terraforming Malefor worked on it. He did a great amount. First was the fact of hydrogen Cyanide in the atmosphere, which is highly toxic to any oxygen breather. We had to remove ALL of it, and it took at least a full year to completely eradicate the substance. Next, he increased the amount of Oxygen, and decreased the methane and ethane. Those were put into the ground after the planet warmed up. The gravity here is lower, but it's made up for by the thick atmosphere, which if you had the same gravity of earth, would make you feel like you were swimming five feet under water. The moons core was made of liquid water, and was brought up. Most of it was evaporated into the atmosphere, which cleared up the haziness and allowed sunlight in. Despite the increased distance, we still have the same average temperature as earth. And the thicker atmosphere means flight is much easier."

The entire process had taken Malefor five years to complete, and it was a feet he seemed somewhat proud of. Ezio was almost astounded at the area around him, yes he was a prisoner, but most of the creatures here seemed friendly enough. At least the ones that were enslaved were. The lieutenants hated him, none more so than Smaug. Malefor however, had surprisingly been somewhat friendly. Ezio didn't buy the act for a second, because he knew of the deviousness of the Dark Master. This time was different though.

"Ah Ezio! Good, I've wanted to speak to you for a while now!" Malefor said warmly, spreading his wings as an invitation, "Thank you Smaug that will be all. Do you mind giving us some peace for a while?"

Smaug scowled, but nodded simply, and backed out of the chamber. Malefor's throne room was long with a vaulted ceiling, like a cathedral, but unlike a cathedral, the entire thing was made of glass, so that the view surrounding them was simply spectacular on the rise that it was built atop of. Malefor stood and walked towards Ezio, sitting down about four feet from the human. Ezio thought how absurd it might be to see two mortal enemies sitting right in front of one another, without trying to get at each other's throats.

"Well, well, well now. We suddenly find ourselves in a peculiar situation, don't we?" Malefor said, peering down at the tiny prisoner, "Normally, I'd question you, and then kill you. But I don't think you'll willingly answer my questions, so I think I have a better idea. I'm going to use you against your friends. Now you also won't do that willingly, but you'll soon find you have little choice. And I think you'll like your new powers so much that you will want to fight for me. Ah well, only one way to find out what will happen."

"All right, fine you bastard; what exactly do you have in mind?" Ezio said, looking up at the massive dark dragon.

"Really? That's it?" Malefor said, smirking at Ezio, "I expect more of a struggle. More of an 'I'll never join you!' sort of thing."

"Well, I don't really have much of a choice do I. So what's your plan?" Ezio asked cautiously.

"Have you ever heard of Cynder's story, Ezio?" Malefor asked, turning towards the entrance, and looking out over his vast empire.

"I never heard it directly from her, but I got the general gist of the story." Ezio said, "Twenty-five years ago, the ape forces raided the hatchery where both Spyro's egg and Cynder's were kept. In desperation, Ignitus secreted just one egg, the purple one, away, to save the entire world from the ape forces wrath, so that Spyro could be raised in secret, away from war and famine, which would easily break any young adult. Cynder on the other hand was captured and raised among the Shadow forces at that time, under your supervision. She was also controlled by your dark magic, and with the augmenting of your powers, gained the strength and power equal to that of a purple dragon."

"You have the general gist of the story, but you're missing one crucial element." Malefor, said, smiling.

"What's that?"

"The fact that the only dragon like Spyro was being used against him. It happened again with my defeat in the planets core. Cynder had betrayed Spyro when she led him to the well of souls and tricked Spyro into freeing me. Only after they were freed from the crystal did she decide to follow Spyro." Malefor said, speaking more to himself than to Ezio.

"I turn her against him. It forced him to believe that he was alone, even if that pathetic runt, Cynder was still there. If it hadn't been for her, Spyro would be dead, and I would be victorious!" Malefor said, stamping his foot on the ground, and making the stone rumble, "But still, here we are."

"Great, now the only question is why." Ezio muttered.

"What?"

"Well you can't be doing all this for absolutely no reason at all." Ezio said, glancing sideways at the dark dragon, "There's got to be some sort of motive behind it, otherwise you really are completely mad."

Malefor considered him for a long time, so long, that Ezio got bored of staring him down, and turned to look back out the window. The sun was starting to set.

"I think I've greatly misjudged you, Ezio." Malefor said at last.

"Join the club, it's got great benefits." Ezio said, tossing his hand in the air. Malefor chuckled ever so slightly, and that surprised Ezio the most. The ancient didn't seem to be stark raving mad. He just seemed to be a bit passionate. Ezio still wasn't fully convinced though, "So what exactly is your plan?"

"You're going to be my new pawn, just as Cynder was mine." Malefor said, walking back to his throne and sitting down, "You will do as I order, respect me willingly, and not question my directions. In return, I will grant you not just life, but powers beyond your wildest dreams."

"And what if I say no?"

Malefor laughed at that, "You are condemned Ezio. If you say no, then so be it, I really have no other choice but to kill you. Look at it this way. Better to live and fight another day."

"Still doesn't mean I consider you an ally."

"I never said you should." Malefor said, looking down at Ezio. Ezio stared up at the Dark Master for several tense moments as he thought fast.

_Not like I have much choice in the matter. Oh well, here goes._

"All right. Do whatever you need to do." Malefor suddenly raised his paw and grabbed Ezio around the throat, placing his palm against Ezio's chest. Ezio saw a glowing black color emanating from the Dark masters whole arm.

"It's going to hurt a lot, so try and relax." Malefor's smile widened as he took the perverse pleasure of causing pain. Ezio suddenly felt as if he was being branded by an iron, the pain was so intense. The dark power suddenly ripped through his shirt, burning a hole with the sheer force, and it quickly gnawed through the bandages bound around Ezio's chest. The sun had set now, and with the light coming from Malefor's dark magic, the room glowed with an arcane light, with shadows flickering along the glass, and being thrown into varying reflections as the glass refracted the light. Ezio cried out long and hard as the power continued to burn into the exposed wound that Malefor had caused. He was having a hard time breathing. He looked over at his arm, and saw a light was already starting to envelope his entire body as he was transformed by the arcane magic. Malefor watched with wonder as the light completely enveloped the human, and his neon silhouette fluxed and grew. When Malefor finally stopped the power, the light drained away quickly, and Ezio, still conscious and breathing hard, fell from Malefor's paws.

Malefor's facial scales went pale as he beheld his creation.

"Impossible! This cannot be? By the ancestors, what have I wrought?" Smaug heard his masters cries of wonder, and ran inside, flanked by two other shadow dragons. The sight before them made them stop in their tracks. Ezio looked up, choking and gasping trying to get oxygen into his lungs. He lifted his hand to wipe away the froth at his mouth.

Except his hand, wasn't a hand.

"No way…"

"Retreating!" Spyro shouted through the quiet medical hall. Frost smacked him upside the head, and several hushed him quickly. Spyro dropped his voice, indifferent to the scowls around him, and kept talking to Needlefoot, whom had brought the latest scouting reports. He couldn't believe what the hedgehog had told him.

"Are you serious? Or are you simply lying to me, and they're on our front doorstep now?" Spyro whispered.

"Do noit take moi word fer it soir, go and see foir yourself." Spyro turned and bolted out of the medical bay, jumping clear over Eclipse, whom had finally been able to get up and walk about. Spyro ran full out of the door, and skidded to turn, only to find himself flung into the far wall of the tunnel. The blow didn't seem to even register; he kept running forward, turned as he left the tunnel and emerged into the blinding sunlight, and leapt clear to the top of the entrance, where Cynder was watching the enemies in the valley.

They were all packing up…

"Retreat?" Spyro said, relief sweeping over him, "Why are they retreating when they were so close to taking the city?"

Nostalgia swept over Cynder as Spyro said this, "I don't think they're giving up Spyro. Maybe they're getting clear so there is no collateral damage. I think we need to evacuate as soon as possible, and get out while we still can."

"Do you think he's planning something?" Spyro asked, looking at the massive portal in the background.

"Yes, he is, definitely." Cynder said without skipping a beat. The two sat there for the next five minutes as the remaining shadow forces trudged back through the portal, and it shrank suddenly into oblivion.

"I don't believe it." Spyro said, "Nothing happened, no golem, nothing. He didn't even bother to show up. What's he trying to pull?"

"Well there goes any chance of finding out where they're base is. When we went through, it seemed like an island paradise. Where ever he chose to set up camp, it was quite nice. Wouldn't mind living there."

"Yeah, if it weren't crawling with shadow forces." Spyro muttered. This was a melancholy moment for him. While on the one hand, this meant that they could escape, it also meant Malefor was most likely planning a nasty surprise, "We won't know what he's doing until he's right on top of us with his surprise waiting. No point in speculating over it."

"How'r the repairs on your wing going by the way?" Cynder asked, running a claw up the mechanical implant he was currently wearing. The settlements researchers had put a lot of time and effort into the system, just for Spyro, but recently, they had to make duplicates for several personnel because of heavy injuries from their last battle. Spyro knew that there was an air dragoness whom had lost both her wings and part of her tail. These prosthetic implants were perfect for keeping disabled veterans in combat. Spyro only felt that the wing just wasn't as much a part of his body, but fortunately, his old wing could be reattached and be made fully functional again.

"Not bad. I can't wait to get my own back on; this one itches a huge amount." Spyro said, shuffling the implant, "It'll have to be reattached on the fly, Quake has informed me that we should break through the outer wall tonight. We're gonna have to start evacuating soon."

"Why are we leaving though?" Cynder said, "Wouldn't it be easier to just stay here? It seems like we're constantly on the run."

"The same reason we left Warfang. Malefor knows where we are, and were not going to just sit and wait for him to kill us." Spyro said, watching a runner arriving with a message. The two Atlawa guarding the door quickly let the mole through. It did not concern Spyro much, there were always messengers arriving and leaving. A large lung climbed up to the look out. Spyro always found the smaller dragons to be slightly odd. They had strange traditions, but Spyro also found that they had excellent cooks. Never had he tasted such good and exotic food. The lung were always wingless, but with a combination of the ability to flatten their body's, and the use of magic, the dragons could still fly, and were very good fliers. They didn't move at all like the standard dragons Spyro was used to, as a standard dragon would turn and twist, so to direct the direction of lift sideways. These lung however weaved through the air, since they produced very little lift, the dragons had to keep moving, and found that twisting in midair allowed them to even hover. Spyro knew this lung right away, as he was the leader of New Hvadia. Nobel was his name.

"Greetings, Spyro, Cynder." Ryuu said, looking over the now deserted landscape, "Surprised are you at the Shadow Forces retreat?"

"I am somewhat. I still can't get the feeling out of my head though that I've missed something." Spyro said, watching the sun set. Because of the height of the valley walls, sunset always came about three hours early, "For instance, I can understand why they retreated. Malefor is planning something. But what, I don't think we'll ever know. Are the airships ready?"

"They are. We have even begun loading the inhabitants onboard. I will personally lead all of us to New Ascari, as I am the only one among our number that knows where it is. There we will meet the might leader of the tribe of Wyverns, whose name is Goliath." Nobel spoke into the wind as warm air rushed in to meet them from the valleys mouth, "Perhaps he has a better intelligence network than us. But somehow I doubt it. Unlike us, they are far less subtle, and prefer strength and power to cunning and stealth. It's not a bad thing in any way, as they are truly powerful creatures, and massive in size. Goliath himself soars to over three stories high."

"Will anyone remain here, Nobel?" Spyro asked, "Or is everyone coming?"

"The only thing that will remain, Spyro, are empty tunnels." Nobel said, turning back to the entrance, "Your tunnel excavator has informed me that we have but one mile left. We leave in two hours."

Spyro approached the two sentries that stood guard, "Get yourselves onboard, we'll watch the entrance for the remainder of our stay."

"Thank mighty Spyro." The Atlawa lieutenant bowed, as did his compatriot. The two left, leaving Spyro and Cynder at the small rampart. Finally, just as the stars were coming out, Spyro turned to Cynder.

"I have some good news, Cynder." Spyro said. Cynder glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. She still hadn't forgiven him for leaving her alone like that to go and fight Malefor.

"What's that Spyro? Finally got some brains?" Cynder said. Spyro ignored the comment, he realized what he did was stupid, and he had paid the price. Even after what he did though, he still found himself as the leader of New Warfang. The settlement had nearly seven thousand inhabitants still, which was just higher than New Hvadia's inhabitants were. Spyro didn't know whether he liked leading, or hated it.

"You'll be happy to know I found a solution to our dilemma." Spyro said.

"Bah, which one?" Cynder asked. She seemed to be in a rather foul mood now that everyone had gone.

"Cynder, I'm disbanding Alpha Squadron." Whatever Cynder had been expecting, it hadn't been that. Her eyes went wide, and she snapped her head around to look at him.

"What?" Cynder said quietly, "But, what about the war?"

"Somehow, I highly doubt that we and the guardians are going to stop flying together. If I can help it, I'm going to keep it together, but I'm resigning as leader. We're not friends because of Alpha Squadron. Alpha Squadron exists because were friends. Besides, the guardianship is still there. I could have been in the guardianship too, but I don't want to have to worry about responsibilities any longer than I have to. And Cynder? I'm sorry."

For a while, Cynder just sat there staring at him, and then she broke out crying, leaning into Spyro chest.

"Cynder!" Spyro didn't think he would ever understand women, even if he did live for a thousand years.

"Spyro, your such an idiot sometimes!" She said, half laughing, half crying into his chest, "What prompted you to do this?"

"Our death toll. And the fact that we've been to constrained with Alpha Squadron. Back in the dragon realms, it made sense, but now, it seems like a stupid idea. Shoot, even if I thought that he wouldn't become a tyrannical dictator, then I would surrender to Malefor. It seems stupid to keep fighting him."

"You know he won't give up until he kills you and me. Though I don't know why." Cynder said, looking up thoughtfully, "He never told me when I was in his service."

"I don't care anymore. All I know is that this will all end if he dies. Next time they attack, we need to order a retreat, and take the guardians in against him ourselves, and give it our all. I think I might have a plan to beat him, even with his special cloning system." Spyro said, also going into a thoughtful state. Cynder looked as if she were struggling with something. Finally, she couldn't take it any longer, and grabbed Spyro's chine, and turning him towards her, looking into his deep blue eyes.

"Cynder wha – " Spyro's sentence was cut off as Cynder force herself into him, drawing out the kiss. Ten seconds, twenty. Spyro lost himself in the embrace, but he held back ever so slightly. If something happened now, they would most likely get caught. Still he had a hard time controlling his hormones.

Finally the two broke apart.

"Cynder, you gotta start giving me a warning whenever you do stuff like that." Spyro said weakly. The passionate kiss had left him quite winded. He registered the fact that Cynder tasted quite a bit like Cinnamon. Cynder only chuckled.

"You kiss like you've had practice before." Cynder said, winking slyly at him. Spyro felt himself blush, but he smiled anyways, and without skipping a beat –

"Oh you know the dragonfly females back home were all over me." Cynder couldn't help it, she busted out laughing. Spyro joined in, and for a long time, the two couldn't stop. Finally, Cynder looked out over the landscape, and jumped. There was one single lone fire out in the valley, smokeless and very tiny. Cynder wouldn't have even seen it if it hadn't been for her improved night vision.

"Spyro, were being followed. They want to keep track of us." Cynder whispered.

"I figured as much. He'll be back, I know he will be." Spyro said. They both stared at the fire for a while, and finally, Cynder turned towards the entrance.

"Come on, we need to get going." Cynder whispered, "The airships will be almost ready to leave right about now."

"Yup, time to hit the road."

"Hit the road, Jack, and never come back."


	2. Chapter 2

"So, therefore, I hereby disband Alpha Squadron." Silence followed Spyro's last words, "I want to stop this madness before all we are known for is our death toll. The guardianship will continue. I don't see the point of stopping something that has proven effective for millennia."

Again, all that filled the surrounding silence was the quiet humming of the airships turbines. Frost had her mouth hanging open, and Blaze looked as if he had just heard that someone had died.

"Hello? Earth to guardians! Guys, I didn't expect stunned silence! I expected you guys to be rejoicing!" The only one whom hadn't shown any emotion was Nova, whom was sitting alone in the back corner again. Then, quite suddenly, Quake's face split into a wide grin."

"Had something to do with Cynder, did this?" Quake asked.

"Um, yeah, actually. It doesn't mean that Alpha Squadron is dead, but I didn't want the squadron to be the only reason we keep together. We shouldn't be friends because were in Alpha squadron. Alpha squadron should exist because were friends!"

"OK, fine then. So what's the plan, Spyro?" Frost asked, stilling looking slightly unsettled.

"We are heading to New Ascari. I think that is the last settlement that Malefor has no idea of its location. There is one thing that has come to my attention that will keep us from getting to New Ascari for a while." Spyro said, looking a bit worried, "The only part that leaves me unsettled is how Malefor found New Warfang to begin with. Malefor himself could not have found it, since Ignitus knew him so well."

"Which can only mean one thing." Blaze commented, apprehension dawning on his face, "A spy."

"Right, a saboteur. Someone might be following us, but after all this time; I should think that we would have seen them." Spyro said thinking hard, "The only other thing we can do is background check the crew and inhabitants."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Blaze asked, swatting a wasp away that was buzzing around his ear, "Background checking – "

"It shouldn't be hard. Only a limited amount of people have been with us since the attack on new Warfang. Malefor would have naturally kept them alive, they are a valuable asset. We only have about 2500 people to check. A lot, but not an insane amount." Spyro said, pacing back and forth, now swatting at the wasp that was buzzing around his ear, "I don't think the felines would – would – "

Spyro was staring up at the wasp now, which had flown up to the ceiling and had landed, inverted. It was keeping un-naturally still. Spyro waited until it had its back to him, then crouched and vaulted upwards. The wasp was too quick for him though, and leapt off the ceiling, and buzzed out a nearby open window.

"That dirty bastard." Spyro muttered to himself, he walked up, and closed the window, "I want this ship sealed, top to bottom, air tight. That's how. I should have figured that more than just cheetahs and moles got transfigured."

"Do what now Spyro?" Frost asked.

"Early on I noticed that many of Malefor's units have the same general fighting tactics and systems of old dragon realms residents. I think Malefor transfigured the old residents to serve his purposes. That one was a – "

"A dragonfly!" Blaze said, "Spyro that means that – "

"Yeah, my brother might be alive."

Ezio held up his hand to wipe away the froth at his mouth. Except that his hand wasn't a hand. It was a dragon paw, complete with long slim claws, but even that was unremarkable next to the color, which had turned a deep shade of –

"PURPLE!" Smaug said in disbelief.

"Purple?" Ezio asked himself.

"Purple…" Malefor said in awe, "Even I underestimate myself sometimes. But son-of-a-bitch this makes things complicated. Smaug, leave us."

Smaug actually took a step forwards, not wanting to go anywhere now. He wasn't staring at Ezio anymore with awed wonder, but a deep loathing. Somewhere behind him, one of the shadow dragons whispered something that sounded like "Competition". Smaug suddenly snapped out of it and turned sharply, the two dragons following him out. Ezio just couldn't help himself; he kept flexing his claws in front of his face. He was still on the floor, but he didn't seem to care, he looked shell shocked. His mouth was still open in a silent apoplectic scream, it seemed. Suddenly, he jumped up, and pounced on Malefor. The Dark Master was so surprised that he fell over backwards, snarling as Ezio grabbed him around the throat.

"What the (he said a very nasty word here) did you do to me!" Ezio screamed. Having just about enough, Malefor reached up, and grab Ezio also around the throat. He squeezed hard, and Ezio began to lose consciousness almost immediately. His grip relaxed, and he began yanking at Malefor's claws, trying to get them off.

"YOU young one will learn respect first. You don't even know your powers yet. Shit, I don't even know your powers yet! And you will also learn to control yourself!" Malefor relaxed his grip, and Ezio fell to the floor. Spots were dancing before his eyes, his lungs seemed to have shriveled, and at least once while Malefor had been strangling him, Ezio could have sworn he heard a pop.

"Know young one that I was showing mercy! And if you do that again, very little of it will you get." Malefor smiled, "Now then top serve my purposes you – "

"What… makes you think… I will serve… you?" Ezio hacked between gasps. Malefor only chuckled.

"If you want to leave, go ahead, I won't stop you. In fact." A portal appeared over the door, "This leads straight back to your home, in Virginia. Go on; go ahead, I won't lift a claw against you."

_Great, is it a trap, or not? He could be tricking me, and I could just rise and he would kill me. Or maybe I could just make a quick dash. Yeah, that's the best idea._

Making up his mind, Ezio went to get up and head towards the portal. But he suddenly found that he couldn't move, at all. Try with all his might; it suddenly looked as if he were paralyzed. He couldn't even move his eyes. However, when he turned to look at Malefor, the feeling came back, and he was able to move freely again.

"As I was saying, to serve my purposes, you need to not only find out your powers, but master them as well. The best way to do this is to practice and train, as hard as you can. This will be our project over he coming months. Until then, you will be housed as if you were one of my lieutenants. You will sleep with them and eat with them…" Malefor began, but Ezio cut him off again.

"Are you nuts? They'll rip me apart! They ALL hate me!" Ezio said. Malefor scowled down at him, and advanced.

"It is rude to interrupt. Now then, you will sleep with – "

"No way am I sleeping with tha – " SMACK! Malefor's tail blade cut a long gash into Ezio's shoulder as Ezio was flung against the wall.

"Young one, learn that you do not interrupt a king unless you want to end up in the dungeons. You will DO as I tell you! You will report to me at eight in the morning, and then you will leave at eight at night. You will eat three full square meals a day, but will never fill yourself up. You will wash your body every day, shave, sharpen your wings, claws and horns every night, and make sure your teeth are clean. You will make sure your scales are waxed to a dull shine, never completely reflective. You may have one day a week off, Sunday. And last, but not least, you will refer to me as master. And you should remember one thing at all times. Don't forget the consequence of disobeying me deliberately." Malefor finished his lengthy speech, "Don't worry about the others, I have instructed them not to harm you, and if they do, it will be treated as if they had killed one of their fellow members. Even still, I would suggest watching your back. Now get out."

Ezio got to his feet, and walked out of the pavilion. Smaug was there waiting for him. He did not smile, nor scowl, he just looked at him, turned and then a short, "Follow me."

It was a short walk to the barracks for the shadow lieutenants, maybe about ten minutes. It was way dark now, so Ezio had to mark the images of lights mentally, so he could find his way. He noticed how his new body was acting too. Every sense seemed to be hypersensitive. He could see way farther in the dark, hear things a mile off as if they were right next to him, feel the individual blades of grass under his paws, and smell the cook fires which he knew were miles away.

The barracks were a more permanent style tent. The walls were thick, and shut out all noise, even with Ezio's advanced hearing. However, when he walked inside, the babble of chatter died down almost instantly, and Ezio could see why. His purple scales stood out in sharp contrast to all the black. Smaug turned towards the group.

"Listen up now!" Smaug shouted with a commanding voice.

"Sir, what's going on? Who is the celestial?" Ezio almost felt as if he was in a dream, being called a celestial by a creature whom he would normally have considered very powerful.

"This is Ezio Starfire." Smaug said into the silence. The dragon whom had voiced the question again opened his mouth, but Smaug cut him off.

"Yes, Sable, THE Ezio Starfire." Smaug said quietly, "It is by order of Malefor himself that he is not to be harmed. He will be bunked with us, and eat with us. However, you will still go by my command. You know the penalty if you disobey this."

If Ezio felt hatred from Smaug, it was nothing compared to what he felt now. Ezio walked down the center aisle, and felt like he was back at school. He stared down the males, and they in turn stared him down, but beneath the fierceness of Ezio's gaze, which he had perfected in his senior year, they quelled before him, despite his obvious lack of size. The females however he had no defense against. The females in general were a surprise to him. They reminded him a lot of Eclipse, except that they all looked at him with feelings of deep disdain and loathing. Ezio finally found an empty bed, and dumped himself down, staring out at them all. All he saw were faces.

After about a minute of them all staring him down, Ezio spoke up into the silence.

"What are you looking at?" Quite suddenly, there was a rush in conversation. Ezio knew what they were talking about, but he didn't care what they thought of him.

"Man I miss home." Ezio whispered to himself.

"Are you sure we don't have any tailing us?" Spyro asked Blaze.

"We did a visual range sweep. Nothing." Blaze said, "We are completely alone."

"Not for long Blaze. We are approaching New Ascari." Spyro murmured, "Better get to the forward viewing post. It'll be easily visible."

The two rushed up to where the glass nose was a viewing post just above the bridge. The sky, however with a deep blue, had clouds swirling all over the place in fantastic formations. Thunder and Eclipse were up there as well. Thunder looked like he was having difficulties.

"Thunder, are you sure you're alright?"

"I'll be fine."

"Positive?"

"Eclipse, I have enough strength for this, trust me." Thunder said, looking down at his life mate. She only smiled, leaned up and kissed him gently. Nova again was standing over in the corner, looking completely devoid of anything. Frost, Blaze, and Quake were standing directly in front of the glass, staring out past the sea, and in the distance, the mainland of South America.

"Any minute now." Spyro muttered. Cynder was leaning against his side. Ever since Spyro had disbanded Alpha Squad, they had not left each other's sight. All of them were scanning the horizon intently. Finally after several tense moments, Blaze shouted, making them all jump.

"There! There, just above the tree tops!" Blaze said, pointing.

"What is it?" Cynder asked, as the airship flew nearer.

"Give it a minute, you'll know soon." Spyro said smiling. The mass continued to draw closer, until suddenly, they heard a sob behind all of them. As one, they turned, and saw Nova on her feet now, staring at the mass in open jawed wonder, tears streaming down her face. Suddenly, she turned, and launched herself out of the room. A moment later, they saw her white body streaking towards the mass. She wasn't the only one either. Beam and Photon were hot on her heals. Blaze looked back up again and swore.

"By our ancestors!" Cynder whispered…


	3. Chapter 3

"Your training will begin now, my apprentice. Before we can begin actually improving your power, we need to find the elements you control. If my theory is correct, you already control Time and Convexity, which we will work on in separate pairs. The remaining four elements will only come under certain conditions." Malefor announced to Ezio. The two had taken a boat for about fifteen minutes to a deserted island in the middle of the sea just off of Malefor's throne room. The Island looked to be artificial, as it had no trees, just sand. It was still early in the morning, as they had begun early this time, so Malefor could show Ezio where the island was. It was warm, and quiet as the waves lapped softly against the beach. Ezio realized that the island was about the size of a football field.

"OK so how'r we going to find out what elements I control?" Ezio asked.

"Your elements will be most apparent under the most extreme circumstances. Therefore, the best way is combat. Don't expect me to go easy, young one." Malefor said, crouching. Ezio had just enough time to register what Malefor was doing before the massive dragon leapt towards him with incredible speed. Ezio side stepped, and then pushed to his right, sending the dark master into a spiral. Malefor's tail however caught Ezio upside the head, and knocked the smaller dragon off his feet. Ezio had just gotten up when Malefor slammed into him, and brought his claw up to end his life. Ezio felt a great surge of strength, and felt something boil in his throat before erupting from his mouth. The beam of light struck Malefor clean in the jaw, going straight past the dragons convexity shield. Malefor promptly jumped off.

"That was FAST! Cynder didn't discover any of her powers for a couple of days. Right, element one was evidently light. I should have figured on that one, considering your closeness to that runt of a dragoness." Ezio snarled at his words, but Malefor wasn't paying attention, "That makes things easy, I know control of light. Right, see if you can replicate that Ezio. Light is a tricky element, as it has no physical feel. Therefore, in an elemental state, it flows from you, like water from a spout."

They continued working on through the morning, all the way up to noon, at which point the two took the same boat back to the mainland, where Ezio was dining with the shadow dragons, and Malefor had his private meal in his throne room. This was the part of the day Ezio had really been dreading. When he got to the dining pavilion, he found a quiet secluded spot in the corner, heaving a large plate of fresh lamb strips with him, as well as a bowl of fruit. The food here he had found was always delicious, and he could eat as much as he wanted without worrying about looking greedy. After a while of munching quietly and thinking of new ways to use his light element, he was aware of someone standing over him. He looked up to find the darkest dragon he had ever seen, whom was somewhat small, surrounded by four males, all of whom towered over him, approaching Malefor's height.

"Well boys, look whom we have here. The bastard dragon from beyond the portal." The dragon said smiling. Ezio eyed all five of them, weighing his odds of victory already. In a very quiet voice, so only the leader and his cronies could hear, he addressed the leader.

"Piss off."

There was a subtle hiss from the body guards.

"Manners, newb. Tell me how life is when you're spoiled, I want to know." The dragon said smiling.

"Manners? I don't even know who you are. So you and the rest of your friends should go and play with your dicks like good bastards, why don't you?" Ezio said softly, rolling his shoulders.

"Hmmm, your right. Ezio, my name is Blake, and I am the strongest shadow dragon here, next to Smaug and the Dark Lord. You would be wise to watch your step." Blake gestured to the other four, "And these are Ciar, Colby, Lonan, and Smith. However, I think that if you were taught some manners, we could have a very powerful friendship. What say you?"

"Do your mom a favor and go drown yourself." Ezio said returning to his food. The next thing that happened was so fast, that Ezio found himself on the floor, panting, with Blake right next to him doing the same, next instant, Blake had leapt to his feet and shot a cloud of shadow at Ezio. The purple dragon had no choice, he countered with his new-found element, and the two collided in midair. Ezio found himself growing weaker and weaker as the opponents pressed each other, trying to force each other to back down. Blake saw Ezio was losing power, and with one massive push, dissipated Ezio's beam of light. Ezio dived to the side, getting burnt quite a bit as Blake's shadow fire scraped his back. Blake hadn't been joking, he was good. By now all the dragons in the arena were watching the fight, cat-calling to Ezio, and cheering Blake on. Finally, Ezio had had enough.

_Time to see if I can fly._

Ezio jumped up, vaulting way over Blake's head, and spreading his wings. He felt the membranes fill with air, and flapped hard. The resulting friction drove him upwards several yards, and Ezio smiled as the wind whipped through his hair. He pushed his wings down and back, and felt his navel jerk backwards as he accelerated. He didn't know how, but instinct told him his current speed and altitude, as well as his direction. He rocketed past one hundred, then two hundred, never breaking a sweat. Performing a barrel roll, Ezio screamed his delight. On Nova's back, flying had been a terror, but this he could endure. Forget endure, he could love this. He wondered why humans didn't simply sprout wings and fly everywhere. He pulled a sharp tight immelman and saw Blake rushing his way.

"Alright prick; let's see what you can do." The two rushed at each other, and Ezio pushed himself to the limit, being rewarded with a large bang that took his breath away. And then he got inspiration from one of Nova's tricks. Holding his element in, he rushed at Blake at supersonic velocities, and just as the two reached each other, Ezio used his element to push himself into superluminous territory. He grabbed Blake as he passed. Blake went to grab him too, but missed, because of the sudden change in Ezio's velocity. Ezio broke the light barrier, and then used his element to stop abruptly, sending Blake out of his grip, and soaring way into the sky. He turned back towards the ground, and saw several awestruck faces looking up at him as he blocked out the sun.

"Does anyone else want to jump me while I'm eating? Or can I live in peace now?" Ezio heard several dragons cheering, and turned back around to find a black streak hurtling back towards the ground, straight at him. Ezio went to roll out of the way, but found that the mass changed direction just as fast as he did. Suddenly, a second black mass shot up from below. The two dragons reformed, and one of the shadow dragons grabbed the other by the back, and used it's inertia to hurtle Blake back around, sending him wheeling wildly up into the sky. When he recovered, Blake stared angrily down at the dragon.

"Kali! You bitch! Get out of my way!" Blake shouted.

"Enough! Blake, do you want me to report you to Malefor? Because I will you know!" Ezio could tell by the voice that it was a female.

"You dare speak his name!" Blake shouted.

"I dare, because unlike you, I am not afraid of him! Week minded fool!" Kali added to the end, "Now get back to your meal, and so help me if I find you attacking anyone else without cause, I will put you down myself, consequences be damned!"

Blake looked as if he were going to attack her, but when he saw the charged light beam Ezio had been preparing, he thought better of it. Instead, he turned back towards the ground and landed among his cronies. Smaug, whom had been watching off to the side, slinked away, probably to tell Malefor what had just happened. Kali followed Ezio back to the ground, whom landed at his table, only to find all his food gone.

"Why does my life have to be so horrible?" Ezio asked himself quietly.

"Are you alright? He looked like he got you pretty good." Kali said, approaching him and stroking his burnt back. Ezio snarled at her.

"I don't need your help!" Ezio nearly shouted. Several dragons turned eyes to him but he ignored them. Kali gasped under his gaze, and Ezio even saw a bit of fear in her eyes before he realized what he was doing. He backed down suddenly, his expression going soft, "I'm sorry. I guess that having been transformed by dark magic and being held against my will in the enemy's camp will turn you into a monster after a while."

"Come on, you can share my food." Kali said, gesturing with her head. The two walked out of the pavilion, and about a minute later, came to stop in a small copse of trees with an incredible view of the sea.

"Wow!" Ezio said, his mouth hanging open slightly.

"Like it? I found it my second week after coming here." Kali said, lying down to a large plate of food. Ezio sat down across from her, and they began to chew quietly.

"Wait, you mean that you weren't born here?" Ezio asked.

"Nope, I'm a native of the new planet earth. For about two hundred years now, I've been serving Malefor and the dark forces. If anyone knows what you're going through, I do. It's one thing to be a purple dragon in the shadow forces though. It's another thing entirely to be a shadow dragon. Before now I was an air dragon, and a thumping good one too, if I say so myself. I was a freelancer, working for the three dragon cities." Kali said, picking up a large leg of pork, and chowing down with reckless abandon. She ate as though she were ravenous.

"I'm sure you've heard how many shadow force lieutenants I've killed." Ezio said.

"Oh yeah. Better believe that. The camp is abuzz with news about you. What's your tally?" Ezio didn't like him being measured upon how good he was in combat.

"I've killed at least ten." Ezio said, "Probably more."

"So you're damn good at combat then. I know some of the dragons you killed. You killed some of my friends even." Kali said, glancing at him from behind an apple.

"I apolo –"

"Don't. Many people blame you for the things you did, but I don't, and you'll find many of the actual shadow forces don't either. You were doing the exact same thing we were doing, protecting your own hide. Kind of as if it's difficult to say I killed many of your friends. I was the one whom struck the ending blow on that audio dragon." Kali said. Ezio's eyes grew wide.

"You were the one whom killed Decibel!" Ezio nearly shouted. He had underestimated this dragoness.

"Yeah, but don't expect me to apologize about it, cause I won't, and neither should you. You realize that at some point, you're going to be going into battle with us, and you'll most likely kill many of your friends." Kali said.

"I should hope not." Ezio replied quietly.

"You don't really have a choice. When does Malefor want you back for training?" Kali said.

"In about thirty minutes, why?" Kali smiled.

"How would you like to see the rest of the camp? Despite the fact that it's swarming with 'Enemies' you'll probably want to know the layout, and there are some things in here that you'll probably want to get your hands on, like a suit of armor." Kali said.

"Now?" Ezio asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Na, not now, tonight, after your training." Kali replied, waving her paw aside.

Ezio thought about it for a second, but the advantage of knowing the enemy camp from the inside out was way too much of a temptation, he quickly agreed.

"Come on, Ezio, keep up with me!" Malefor shouted back over his shoulder. Ezio couldn't understand how Malefor weaved so easily through the rocks in their path. Malefor was teaching him flight training now, which he said he would go over every afternoon, and then after dinner, he would begin hand to hand training.

"I'm right behind you! Speed up, or I'll smack into your ass!" Despite himself being trained by his biggest foe, Ezio could say he was having fun. When Nova had said that a cluster of rocks like this could be a playground for an ace, she hadn't been kidding. G forces inertia and momentum tried to drag him every which way, but Ezio countered with them, and it seemed all the forces worked in unison, sending shivers of pleasure through his body.

"All right, you know the route! Go through it as fast as you can, and don't stop. We'll time you every time!" Ezio went through several times, and each time, he kept beating his old record, slowly gaining confidence and speed in the water canyon.

That evening, Kali and Ezio ate dinner together again, this time each with their own plates. Ezio found that the spot Kali had found had an epic view of the sunset every night. After dinner, Ezio went back to the Island to train in hand to hand with Malefor, whom Ezio could tell was holding back. Ezio quickly found that instead of having a single weapon to fight with, Ezio's entire body could be used as a weapon. His fists hardened with scales could punch through concrete, and his tail and spade was a weapon of mass destruction. His wings, which had been honed to a fine edge served as excellent dual blades. Ezio caught on quickly, and found that so long as he kept thinking ahead, his body would always find ways of being of use to him, so that he was always set up for another attack.

Finally, the first day ended, at ten o clock. Malefor didn't call for a boat; he seemed to already know that Ezio could fly. Malefor was somewhat quiet on the way back.

"So, Ezio, what do you think?" He finally said as the mainland grew into view. Ezio didn't have to ask what he meant.

"You haven't earned my trust, and you never will, but it is much different than what I originally thought." Ezio said, referring to the enemy camp.

"What were you expecting?" Malefor asked.

"Something along Cynder's old place." Ezio replied, thinking back to Cynder's fortress.

"Why depress your troops? Besides, Europa is a much better location strategically. Unless they knew the exact position of the moon and the base, they could never reach here. And they don't even know where here is, do they?" Malefor asked. Ezio was able to remain silent though, the magic didn't work on him. It was dark when they landed, but the camp was louder than ever. Ezio headed towards the barracks, where he was to meet Kali. She was waiting for him.

"About time! How was training?" Kali asked, smiling.

"Not bad. Got the hang of flying finally." Ezio said. Kali arched an eyebrow.

"Already?" She asked skeptically.

"Yeah, why?" Ezio asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Ezio, it took me three years to learn how to fly. And I was dragon born." Kali said.

"I – Wait, what?"

"Flying is natural for a dragon, yes, but because they do it so much. We still have to learn how to fly, and very few people can just jump off the ground and start flying, and even less can fly and fight as you did yesterday. I don't know how your doing it, but it seems like this stuff is coming naturally to you." Kali smiled then, "You haven't done this before, have you?"

"Hehe, nope, it's just it comes to me I guess." Kali shrugged, and walked on, Ezio trailing behind her. The first place she took him was the armory. Whatever Ezio had been expecting, it hadn't been this. Instead of hundreds of thousands of guns, it was all research. The thing Ezio was most interested in was the laser systems they were developing. It was handheld, about the size of a rifle. However, when the thing was shot, it produced a beam so hot it cut through solid steel. Ezio would shudder to think what would happen if those were fielded against his friends.

"How many troops are in the shadow forces overall?" Ezio asked curiously, as they left the armory.

"You don't want to know the answer to that, Ezio." Kali replied quietly. Ezio very much did, but he could tell that just by the size of the camp that there were far more than the allied forces. Ezio could only hope that he could find a way to escape and tell them. Kali almost seemed to know what he was thinking.

"Come on, I got something to show you." She grabbed him round the neck with her tail and ran up a trail, towards the top of the mountain in the background. Finally, both of them winded reaching the top, Ezio got a good look of where she was leading him.

"Why not just fly?" Ezio asked, drawing abreast of the dragoness.

"What? And miss all the scenery?" Kali said smiling at him. She approached the peak of the mountain, but before she reached it she made a sharp one eighty, and came to a stop in a little alcove in the shadow of the mountain. There were several orcs there.

"Do you mind?" The Orcs looked like they did mind, but they saw Ezio, and thought better of it. The rushed up towards the top of the mountain to keep an eye out still. Kali sat down, pulled on something concealed in the bushes, and out came a giant lens, which covered the entire opening between the trees that looked out across the camp.

"What in the world?" Ezio began, but Kali cut him off.

"There's only one thing that keeps me from going insane, and that's this. I come up here every night to stargaze. But there's only one thing worth seeing." She turned the glass slightly, and Earth appeared. A sudden longing for home swept over him.

"How long am I going to be here?" Ezio moaned to himself.

"It's tough, but bearable, trust me. Now I have something else to show you." She turned just as several creatures walked into the clearing. Two small Grublins, one flying and the other land based. An Orc as well as an Elite, and finally, a massive Ogre nudged his head into the clearing.

"Ezio, say hello to the members of the resistance." Kali said. She indicated everybody around her, "These people were once members of the allied forces over fifty thousand years ago. The Ogre behind you was actually the last Earth Guardian."

"Terrador?" Ezio said in almost an awed voice. He had heard much about the previous guardians and their accomplishments.

"The very same." Terrador said. His deep rich baritone rumbled deep inside Ezio's chest when he spoke.

"The others are Kane, of the Atlawas, Hunter, of the cheetah tribes… " She motioned to the Orc and Elite.

"Hunter? I fought with your sword while I was under the allied forces banner!" Ezio said, realization dawning on him.

"I hope my blade served you well?" Hunter asked. His voice was low and smooth, and seemed to send liquid copper into Ezio's ears.

"Very well, indeed." Ezio said, not believing his insane luck.

"The two Grublins are Mason, of the moles, and Mole Yare, of the Manweresmalls." Kali said, "And the wasp hovering next to your ear – "

Ezio finally noticed what was making his head buzz, he glanced over, and saw a very large wasp with a roguish smile on his face hovering next to where his ear would have been.

" – is none other than Sparx, Spyro's foster brother."

"Wait, what?" Ezio said, turning his head sharply.

"Oye! Watch it purple butt! You nearly clipped me!" Ezio was confused now.

"What would Malefor possibly want with a pipsqueak like you?" Ezio had said the wrong thing, Sparx zipped up, and began punching him into the side of the face, and despite his extremely small size, he did pack quite a punch.

"Ow! OW! Dude, enough, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"Sparx! Control yourself, fight it!" Kali shouted at the tiny wasp. Sparx stopped immediately, and zoomed up to hover next to Kali's head.

"Sorry, but u know, fifty thousand years under an insane madman's control kind of changes you. Not even you know what that's like Kali, only the few of us who're left! Pipsqueak indeed." Sparx ranted on and on.

"Sorry Sparx, I don't mean to insult, it kinda came out. Remember, you might have been here for fifty thousand years, but I have to deal with the bastard directly." Ezio said, rubbing the side of his head.

"Yeah, sorry about my reaction to, I'm kinda pissed that I'm forced to spy on my own brother." Sparx said grumpily.

"Ezio, we are here for support, but despite how much we want to, we cannot disobey Malefor directly, but there are alternatives to fighting. These next few months are also likely to be very difficult for everyone, especially you."

"Why's that?" Ezio asked, looking around.

"We have a plan to escape Malefor's grasp and return to the allied forces, but until now, we have had no way of putting that plan into action." Hunter said quietly.

"Why?"

"Ezio, because of you. We need a purple dragon to complete the plan." Kali said.

"Wait, why?" Ezio asked, now completely confused.

"Ezio, how did Jeeves escape Malefor's control?" Terrador asked from behind him.

"He went through a time of great strife, when the world was destroyed. Eventually, he found the strength to break Malefor's hold." Ezio said, "Why do you bring this up?"

"Because now we finally have the power to destroy this planet." Terrador replied simply.

"By Thunder!" Thunder said, "Concurrent Skies!"

"What now?" Blaze asked, staring at awe at the floating Islands sprawled before them.

"Blaze, Concurrent Skies was Nova's home before the planet was destroyed." Spyro said quietly, "I'm glad she finally showed some emotion. I don't think she was expecting that. I certainly wasn't."

"Why here though? It seems so exposed above the clouds." Eclipse said at Thunders side.

"It seems like it, but no dragon could fly up this high, were at about fifteen thousand feet, that's about three miles. The air isn't thick enough up here to support us, we would stall." Spyro explained.

"Unless you have a durable aircraft with a lot of power behind it, and short landing capabilities then you won't be able to land here." Spyro commented, looking around, "Come on, we need to greet Goliath, New Ascari's leader."

The group retreated to the flight deck, which was no deserted, since none of the dragons could fly.

"Who is it then that Nova, Beam, and Photon could fly?" Quake asked.

"They probably used their powers to keep them aloft. A slight nudge with their light in an upwards direction would mean they could fly." Cynder explained. The craft was slowing down and descending towards the area. Quite suddenly, the air thickened and grew much warmer, and Spyro looked around, smiling.

"Wind generators? Genius. It means they can fly throughout he settlement without worry." As they breached the perimeter, many dragonish creatures flew out to meet them, taking up escort positions on the crafts flank. Spyro saw, as they grew closer that the dragons had no front legs, but rather had wings with appendages attached to the fore arms for flight. Spyro also saw that they were all very large, even the females were twice his size. One particularly savage looking female, whom was quite small for her breed glided closer to the landing ramp, and alighted gently on the cold steel. She looked them all over, her eyes lingering for a fraction of a second on Blaze's huge bulk, and then addressed them all.

"Hail alpha squadron! My name is Kura, I am a Templar guard of New Ascari, I guard our establishment's fine borders. Welcome to our domain. Our leader, Goliath will be here shortly to greet you." No sooner had she finished speaking than a shadow detached itself from the largest island cluster and flew out to meet them. Spyro could tell this dragon was huge.

Goliath only flew out in front of the massive airship, and beckoned with his wing for them to follow him. Kura led the flight off the ramp, the rest of Alpha squadron following. She led them straight to a large cleared out courtyard that was easily large enough to hold the airships. A large electrical dragon approached them as they landed.

"Kura! I am to relieve your guard for the time being! What was your sector?" The dragon shouted above the roar of the approaching airships.

"Sector eighteen Static! Better haul ass, I had to leave it unguarded." She shouted back, and the electrical dragon dived off the side. Spyro noticed flight came naturally to these dragons that lived so high up. He reckoned they could even rival Nova in flight.

"Ah, Goliath! This is the guardians!" Spyro was suddenly cast into shadow, and turned to look up into an absolutely massive dragon. Spyro took an instinctive step back.

"Son of a bitch!" He heard Blaze swear under his breath.

"Hehe, no need to be alarmed young ones, I mean you no harm." The mighty dragon rumbled. Spyro registered the fact that the dragon had a deep green armor that was so dark it almost went black. The dragons eyes were however a pure startling emerald. The dragon sat back, and the sun lit up his hide so much that Spyro also registered the fact of the hundreds of scars that mark his hide, as well as the translucent stomach, that showed a beating heart, and breathing lungs through an opaque window. Spyro looked around and found that every dragon had one of these windows.

"Mighty Goliath. It is an honor and a pleasure to meet you. I am sure you have heard of our recent adventures?" Spyro addressed the massive dragon.

"I have, and I am sorry for your loss, Spyro. Ignitus was a good friend of mine, and it pains me to see him go. I can only wonder now though who will take his place as chronicler."

"I can only hope that we can find a replacement soon. Unfortunately, my people are hungry, and tired of traveling, as well as heavily battle scarred, if we could be so bold as to ask if – "

"Say no more, young one. Mi case es su casa, my home is your home. Welcome to New Ascari." He said, smiling down at them.

"You mean Concurrent Skies!" They all turned to find Nova standing there, with Beam and Photon flanking her, "That's what this place was, correct?"

"Indeed, young one. Welcome home, Nova." Goliath said his smile widening.

"I can't believe it. It's exactly as I remember it! The roman architecture and the golden plating! The huge oak trees and the massive academy and library, it's all here! And it's all right where I remember it! How could you possibly know?" She said, her mouth hanging open.

"Because we have a friend of yours here." Goliath said turning, and beckoning again with his wing.

"Who?" Nova said her mouth still agape. She followed Goliath over to a shadowy corner, Spyro following the two, while the rest of the squadron helped land and unload the airships. A light dragon with a dark golden pelt stepped forward from the shadows, and Nova stopped, and stepped backwards slightly.

"No." She whispered to herself.

"Hello, Nova." The dragon said with a small quiet smile.

"You're dead! I'm not seeing this, you're dead!" Nova said, backing up even more.

"Nova, believe me, I thought I was dead too. But I got lucky." The dragon said.

"HOW THOUGH!" Nova suddenly burst out, and the dragon winced, "AND WHY DIDN'T YOU FUCKING TELL ME!"

The entire courtyard was watching now. The dragon paled before Nova's power as her element started to leak out of her, in her fury.

"DAMN YOU APOLLO! WHY DIDN'T YOU LET ME KNOW YOU WERE ALIVE?"

"I tried! I really did, Nova!" The dragon shouted, but breathing deeply, Nova turned on him and sat down, looking away.

"Well this explains a lot!" Nova said over her shoulder.

"Nova what is it? What's going on? Who is he?" Blaze had come up, and so had Frost, whos eyes had grown wide.

"HOLY SHIT!" She said, also stepping back, "I didn't expect that one to work. Thought you were dead. I declared you dead."

"The cryosleep you put me in was more than effective. You said they didn't have the technology to revive me when you left. You were right, but they waited until I did. I was found in the wreckage of concurrent skies, over twenty thousand years ago. The Ice casing you put me in protected me from planets destruction. About Ten years ago, they finally found something to revive me, and it worked. The residents of New Ascari where able to patch my spine back together, and then revive me." Te dragon said this all very fast, so to get it out.

"Then when you found out we were on the planet, we finally appeared, why didn't you tell me you were alive? Do you have any idea of the pain I went through, thinking my entire world was dead? And Frost, why didn't you tell me what you did?" Nova turned on the Ice dragoness.

"How should I have known he was important to you? I found one of them still alive with their spine broken, and I put him into cryosleep!" She said, backing down, "I didn't even think he would make it!"

"Nova, who is he?" Blaze asked, curiously.

"He is Apollo, my life mate."


	4. Chapter 4

And so Ezio's routine went like this, day after day. In the morning, he would fly to the small Island where Malefor would run him through his paces. Slowly, he got better and better at both hand to hand and elemental combat. Then at noon, he would return to the mainland for lunch with Kali. After lunch, he would proceed to the copse of rocks where he would push himself harder and harder. The rocks proved to have so many different paths, that no matter how much he thought he knew them; he was always kept on his toes. After his flight practice, he would again return to the mainland, and have dinner with Kali. Every evening, she would show him some new part of the camp.

Ezio also found that Kali wasn't the only one of her type; there were many dragons that were under Malefor's forces against their will. Those were the ones feeding the resistance information right under Malefor's nose. Many dragons found that when Ezio was fighting for their cause, they befriended him. There was one such dragon that Ezio met, whom was different than the average shadow lieutenant in so many ways it was surprising that he was part of the shadow forces at all.

"I'm an emotion dragon, a very rare and very old one too." The light red male had told him. His coloration, a hot pink was so different and stood out so well that Ezio couldn't keep himself from asking.

"I've never heard of one. So, wait, any emotion? What abo – " Ezio began, but the ancient, full grown dragon cut him off.

"Not any emotion, there are rules, just like everything else. Love, hate, friendship, and fear cannot be created, it is purely impossible, since they are such strong emotions. However, I can create a nudge that would send the specific person in the right direction. Like with Love? I can't create the emotion, but I can create a very strong infatuation towards their opposite." The dragon explained, working on a folded titanium sword. Ezio knew the dragon was their weapons master.

"I also wanted to talk to you because of your forgery skill. I find myself in need of a suit of armor." Ezio said, smiling slightly to himself. He had been looking forwards to getting a suit, as he had always admired how fierce Alpha Squadron had looked in theirs.

"Ah, now we talk about something truly exciting! I was hoping you might want to get a set of armor pieces. Now, I hope you know what armor is supposed to be used for yes? It's not a full proof shield that will save you in all circumstances. However, it will protect you from some of the lighter quick attacks. Normal protectors always seem to include a helmet, which can include a neck plate, but since the jugular vein is always at the back of a dragon, and the esophagus is self-healing, it is most times unneeded, especially since the back of a dragon's neck always has thick inherent armor anyways. The wings however are a different matter. The joints are always the best spots on a dragon to go for, since when you cut out a dragon's ability to fly, it cannot escape from impending doom."

"Most times, to protect toes in battle, there are always gantlets, since you never want to be crippled in the middle of a battle. The rear toes are less of a problem, since they are thicker, and have denser bones; you have less to worry about. Finally, there are also hip plates, and breast plates you can use as well, plus I have others. If you wanted, I could make a full body suit." The dragon finally finished. He was up and walking down the aisles of armor he made for all the lieutenants.

"Well, the first thing I was thinking was that I won't need a helmet, but I should still probably grab a nose guard, my horns protect me from most of the damage. I also want a breast plate and gauntlets, plus the wing guards. And a hip plate. After that, it's just a simple mace add-on." Ezio said.

"It won't be a mace, your ax like head is already lethal enough, I'll just make it a counter weight, so it's easier to control. Everything else seems to be in order."

"I never got you – "

"Duygu. But don't try and pronounce it. The last one who did got it wrong and he ended up tearing his tongue halfway off." Duygu said with a wry smile, "Most everyone calls me Anvil. One last thing, don't come back here before your armors done, or else I'll send you out of here balling your head off."

It was encounters like these that made life on Europa bearable, and Ezio even found himself enjoying parts of his life. He was still seen as an outcast, and many lieutenants frequently tried to corner him on his own. When the resistance found out, they assigned Kali to guard him whenever he wasn't training with Malefor. It was because of her that Ezio was able to keep his head. Finally, Ezio asked the question that had been lingering at the back of his mind since he had arrived.

"How many units are there in the Shadow forces?" Ezio asked.

"Are you gonna eat your feta cheese?" Kali asked him after a short pause.

"Duh, I love feta. I love everything about Gyro's, you know that, now what about my question?" Ezio asked. Kali turned away and looked out over the water.

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" Kali said, and then she burst out laughing.

"Kali, what on earth?"

"Ezio I –" She took several gulps of the salty air, coughed once, then began to breath very slowly. Finally, she faced him, opened her mouth, and –

"Over ten billion." There was a ringing silence in the air, even the sea seemed to have gone quiet.

"Son of a bitch, that's the first time ever!" Kali said quietly. She looked like she was going to faint. Ezio was just sitting there, with his gyro halfway to his mouth, looking as if he had been clubbed over the head.

"Kali, what on earth?"

"I wasn't allowed to say, the imprisonment was treating it like an interrogation! I broke through the spell! Do you think he knows?" Kali said, looking fearful.

"Of course he knows. The dark lord always knows." Came a low calm voice from behind her. Kali jumped up and spun around, but she paled at the feet of Malefor.

"Master! It was not my fault! He was only curious!" Kali tried. But Malefor held up a paw to silence her.

"If he was only curious, then why did you try to break through? Nothing you can say now, Kali, will change my mind with what I'm going to do to you! Hehe." Ezio jumped in front of Kali.

"No! Master! Please, it's my fault, punish me instead!" Malefor simply laughed, and Ezio found his legs, suddenly, inexplicably moving to the side, in a short side shuffle. In a few seconds he, was clear of Kali, and completely immobile.

"Follow me my dear. Ezio, you are excused from the rest of today's training; I will see you tomorrow morning. May this be a warning to you, hmm?" As soon as Malefor was gone, Ezio felt his body release himself. He instantly jumped into the air to try and give chase, but Malefor and Kali were nowhere to be seen.

"No!"

Ezio could not sleep at all that night. He lay awake, staring at the ceiling from Kali's cot. A while ago, Ezio had returned to the barracks to find his cot laying in pieces. Considering that Blake and his cronies were a few cots away silently smirking and shaking with laughter, he had a shrewd idea who did it, but had no proof. He had appealed to Smaug for a new one, but Ezio felt that Smaug was jealous of his closeness with Malefor, and thus, trying to make him as uncomfortable as possible. Kali had offered to share her cot with his, and Ezio had gratefully accepted. He had silently told himself that he would never speak to Nova about the fact that he was sleeping in the same bed with another dragoness, but Kali's heat and body weight had been comforting, and Ezio hadn't realized how much he had grown accustomed to it.

Ezio had heard no word of his ebony friend, and no one around here was likely to give him any news if they did know. He had tried to make contact with members of the resistance, but not only did they not know anything, but also they did not want to end up with the same fate as Kali.

Ezio was out way before sunrise, trying to fly off his nerves. Even still, he did not settle down at all as he approached the island with the sun at his back. As he dived down towards the small lump of land, he noticed that there was a portal behind Malefor.

"Well now, my apprentice, because of your reluctance to yield anymore elements, and because of your scheming and plotting, I have decided an appropriate punishment for you. Bring forth the prisoner!" Ezio didn't realize what was happening till two elites came striding out of the portal, with Kali in tow, chains binding her legs and neck, as well as a massive metal ball on her tail.

"No, Master, please, don't make me – "

"ENOUGH! You disobeyed lord Malefor, and now you shall pay the price! Now guard yourself, you'll find that neither of you have a choice!" Malefor, and at that moment, the chains and ball released Kali, and she lunged at Ezio with fangs stretched wide, the lower half of her body shrouded in shadow.

Ezio instinctively struck back, smacking the dragoness aside with his tail. It was a symbol of how tough Kali was when Ezio realized she was better than Malefor. The only thing that Ezio found fortunate is that he could counter Kali's shadow power with his own light element. About five minutes into the fight, it was mostly Ezio whom had many burns and cuts on his hide, as he was reluctant to hurt the dragoness. However, he slowly began to tire.

"Come now, Ezio! You cannot defend yourself forever! Fight back! Or have you got nothing left, like that pathetic dragon Spyro?" Malefor said, after nearly twenty minutes of fighting. Kali lunged at him again, at close range, and Ezio found himself on his back. Kali raised her paw, and brought it down on Ezio's muzzle. It was only by luck that Ezio had pushed his muzzle down from the force of impact with the ground, and his neck was not sliced open, as he now had many bad marks across his face and hide. Ezio brought his own paw up to stop Kali again, and he found himself in a strength match with his dragoness friend, her claw growing ever closer. Ezio had not known that she was this strong. Her claw was about an eighth of an inch from his chest before Ezio realized something was wrong. Instead of her claw approaching his chest even more, her grip was slackening, and Kali was falling sideways from on top of him. Ezio looked at the female, and found that he had instinctively reached up and grabbed the shadow dragon in the chest, and used an element. There was now a small dent in her smooth skin that curved inwards on top of her heart and it was bleeding profusely.

"Ezio? What the - ?" The curse seemed to have lifted from Kali as Ezio reached up and slowly lowered her to the sandy ground. Malefor was laughing, but Ezio was completely oblivious to this fact.

"You see now, fool, what happens to those of you who resist Malefor? They do not live very long. How do you feel hmm? Hehe, at least all was not a waste of time, Gravity! Excellent! I know of that one as well!" Malefor was talking to himself. Ezio however had eyes for no one but the black dragoness convulsing silently at his feet.

"Not your fault, Ezio. I had it coming to me, it was only a matter of time. I – " She paused to cough, and Ezio blinked slightly as he was sprayed with Kali's own blood, "I just wish it wasn't so painful."

"No, come on, Kali! Stay with me!"

"Heh, why do you say that, huh? You know it never works! I kind of know what some people say when it gets cold though, cause I can feel a slightly salty breeze inside my own heart, and frankly, it does feel kind of cold. There was so much I wanted to say to you though! Like thank-you for being there for me!"

"No, Kali, thanks for being there for me."

"Oh shut up, you don't know how much you've helped me. These last few weeks have seemed almost normal with you at my side." Ezio looked into the dragoness's quickly fading eyes. He saw something he knew as excitement, as she approached the greatest adventure of death. But there was something else in there to. What was that? Regret? Sorrow? And one more thing, that he knew he had seen in Eclipse's eyes before, but he had no idea what it was. And then Kali's eyelids drooped slightly, and her breathing became shallow, and her eyes began to fog over as the life slipped from them very slowly.

"Kali, no! Please, don't go, I cannot do this without you!" Ezio felt his paw moving instinctively, and he looked down, stopping it quivering, keeping it from causing more damage, but it was as if someone else was controlling it. It came to rest on top of the wound, and Ezio saw a bit of energy leave him, something bright white, and pulsing slightly. He looked up just in time to see Kali's eyes snap open and see them flare with energy, her breathing wavered and then came back into life, as she labored to keep the life inside her, and she gasped as energy was forced into her. Even as Kali gained on the embrace of death, Ezio felt a huge amount of energy leave him, and he realized what happened.

"Isn't that bitch dead yet? Whats - ?" Malefor stood over her, and his jaw dropped, "THIS is a new one! A New element! Life! I don't know anything about this one, maybe it's just energy, or healing powers."

The great shadow dragon looked from Ezio to Kali who was still struggling, "I am please Ezio, and thus you shall be rewarded. Two elements so close to one another is very good. You have the rest of the week off, take her to the healers, if you keep her alive, they should be able to save her."

Ezio looked up, slightly astonished, and then took Kali up in his arms and slung her over his back, so that her head lolled over his shoulder, and took off into the rising sun.

* * *

Blaze walked through the massive labyrinth that was the library of New Ascari. He had had too much to worry about in the past few days, and had been slightly less than humorous, he could tell, as people had laughed less at his jokes. More than anything, he had been watching Apollo and Nova. Nova was still pissed at her life mate for not telling her that he was still live. Blaze had half a mind to think that it was mostly because of Ezio. The human had spent more and more time in her company before he had died, and he thought the two had become closer than just average friends.

Now that he thought about it, the only reason he could think of Nova hanging round Apollo was to have some company. He hadn't seen anything happening between them, but that didn't mean anything. Apollo was a nice enough guy, but he could tell that the thing that drew Nova to him was his dedication to not only her safety, but the safety of the others around himself.

Blaze also wasn't feeling to cheerful himself. He had grown jealous of Ezio and Nova while the two had company, and now he was jealous that she had someone again. She had shown incredible improvement since meeting Apollo, and was eating, showing emotion, sleeping better, everything. He had also been jealous of Eclipse and Thunder, since they had been very close. He had been surprised about the egg, but not overly so, he had guessed that it would happen at some point or another.

So intent in his thoughts was Blaze that he failed to notice the large fire wyvern hanging from the ceiling. The female sniggered ever so slightly as the guardian drew underneath her, and at just the right moment, she let go and fell directly on top of the male, smothering him in her wide wings.

"Ooh, you're much warmer than I thought you'd be Blaze!" Kura said, as she rolled off of him laughing. Blaze couldn't help but grin slightly, "What's up worrywart? Something on your mind?"

Blaze hadn't gotten a good look at Kura the first time, even though he could tell she was very pretty, even if she wasn't his breed. Despite the breed, she was his size to, actually, slightly shorter. Her head was covered in long flowing dark red hair, and her pelt was so dark it was almost black, yet it was indeed red. She had wavy flowing tufts of hair coming from her ankles, as well as her elbows and knees. However, her eyes were a very bright white, with a reddish tinge that changed color as she moved her head, so that she continuously looked alive. She also had very long eyelashes, and a very large chest for her young age.

"Ah, just personal stuff Kura, nothing that I don't want to involve you in." He said, continuing towards the stairway at the end of the hall, which led up to the fourth level of the library they were in.

"But what if I want to be involved?" Kura said. Blaze eyes her with a single eye, arching his brow.

"You couldn't help anyways." He muttered, frowning again. Why couldn't she just leave him alone?

"Oh? Don't be so sure moan pants. Maybe a long private tour of the city will cheer you up." Kura said. Blaze opened his mouth to say something, but closed it sharply, as he registered what she had just said.

_Private?_

It was just then that he noticed Kura was batting her eyelashes. She really was incredibly pretty.

"What about your guard duty?" He asked. His heart rate was elevating now, he could feel it from his training.

"Na, Static is covering for me for now. Oh come on Blaze, it'll be fun! Get your mind off something. Come on, I know a place not far away that has epic Pizza." Kura said, dragging him towards the exit. Blaze smiled, and allowed himself to be pulled along.

It turns out that there was much more to the city than just the library and the academy. Blaze found that it also had a somewhat rich cultural history, as few humans had ever bothered them, because of their reclusion and altitude. Kura took him to the amphitheater that the Ascari's used for plays. It was almost like what Ezio had described to him as a movie theater. Blaze had to fight the temptation to throw his wing around the dragoness as they watched.

It wasn't until the evening that Blaze found what the city was especially good at. The two dragons had been swapping war stories, and Blaze found that Kura had been in a surprising number of engagements. Even still, the fights he had been in far surpassed hers in scale and length.

So towards the end of the second week, I had already procured a number of wounds, believe it or not – "

"Naw, seriously? The mighty Blaze get wounded?"

"Hehe, I know right! Anyways, Quake had been sent to take out the two battering rams, so he was exhausted, and Thunder and I were sent in to try and take down a few Lieutenants. And before I know it, I'm up against a full on Smaug, although now that I think about it, it wasn't Smaug, it was probably Jeeves. Anyhow, at some point or another, I remember getting up underneath him, climbing, and I was thinking I was dead. So I thought, 'Blaze, if you're going down, you might as well take this guy down with you.' And I launch this plasma bolt upwards at him, you know, my screaming javelin attack, and he swerves to avoid a collision, and out of nowhere, a second shadow force lieutenant flies, and the two collide and fall out of the sky."

"Speaking of falling out of the sky…" Kura motioned upwards, and Blazes jaw dropped, seeing so many stars, "We have a meteorite shower tonight. Hehe, make a wish."

And indeed the sky was now streaked with tiny shooting stars. Blaze tracked one with his eyes as it fell towards the earth quite close to them. Kura was not watching the falling stars; she had eyes only for Blaze.

"Are you really making a wish?" She asked him after a brief span. Blaze looked down and met her eyes. There was a short span, and then…

"JUST KISS HER ALREADY BROTHER!" Blaze looked up to see Quake, Spyro, and Cynder flying off in the distance, and couldn't help himself, he chuckled.

"Mind your own business groundpounder!" Kura yelled at him, smiling.

"I will when you mind yours, hothead!" Quake hollered back, before he was swallowed by the darkness.

"Insolent little son of a bi – " Kura's next sentence was cut off as Blaze leaned down and kissed her. Kura smiled to herself inside.

_Gottcha big guy._


	5. Chapter 5

"Three days now, I can't believe she made it." Ezio's head was pounding.

_She didn't make it, theoretically, she was dead, I revived her._

"Even still, she's alive and breathing. By all accounts, she should be dead."

_Couldn't they shut up?_

"Ugh, what now?"

"You're awake! I'm sorry sir!" Someone said. Ezio sat up and looked blearily down at the tiny grublin.

"Come on guys, leave him alone." There was a small wasp over by the door.

"Morning Sparx." Ezio said as the two tiny creatures left the tent.

"You mean evening, purple butt, not morning." He said, flying next to Kali's head and listening to her soft breathing.

"Is it? I'm losing track." Ezio said, rubbing at his eyes with the back of his paw, "I've been sleeping for ages, this has got to be the second day."

"Third, for those of us whose lives haven't turned upside down and spilled out all their guts. You really had us going there." Sparx replied rubbing Ezio's head.

"I had you going! Sparx, she nearly died by my hands! I didn't know what would happen!"

"Hey, no one is blaming you on what happened. It was Malefor's fault; he was the one who put her under the spell. I'm just saying it looked odd when you came back with her slung in your arms, a special energy flowing from you to her, and a massive dent in her hide." Sparx said, crossing his arms now, and looking at the dragon.

"I know what it looked like! But you've got to understand the guilt I feel." Sparx was silent for a while.

"Talking to you is like talking to my brother."

"Great minds think alike."

"What's happened with her?" Sparx asked, floating over next to the females head again.

"Nothing, she passed out right before I hit land. I'm worried that she's been asleep for three days, but then come to think of it, so have I. God this is entirely my fault!" Ezio said, rubbing his paws across his skull, and then remembering that he had horns and he couldn't do so.

"Easy up Ezio! Forget what you didn't do, and remember what you did! You didn't kill her, you saved her! And I have no doubt that she's going to be very grateful towards you when she wakes up." Sparx said, laughing.

"Why do you care for her so much?"

"She kind of reminds me of Cynder. Come to think of it though, you remind me of Spyro. You make a good couple." Sparx said, smiling to himself.

"Were not a couple…"

"Keep telling yourself tha –" His sentence was cut off as Kali gave a soft moan.

"Oh my chest! Hu – " Kali suddenly leaned over the side of her bed and vomited all over the floor. Unfortunately, Ezio was sitting right where it fell.

"Ah, SHIT! Damn, I guess that's the least I deserve!" Ezio said, quickly getting out of the way, and grabbing a nearby towel. Kali was still heaving over the side of her bed.

"I'll go and grab the medic…" Sparx said, and he flew quickly out of the tent. Ezio caught the hint of a grin on his face.

"Ugh, what's he so happy about?" Kali said, finally looking up. Her face had a very pale tinge to it.

"He thinks were a couple"

"Oh please, don't make me vomit again." Kali said, lying back on her pillows, "I'm sorry for what happened."

"It's not your fault. I pushed too much. At least you're ok." Kali looked at him for a while, as Ezio sat down next to her bed, "You don't think I would be a good mate."

"Oh I have no doubt, but I think of you as a friend. I could no more mate with you than become a lesbian." Kali said with a weak smile, "You do deserve something as thanks, though."

Ezio heard what she said, but even still, nothing could have prepared him for the kiss. He remembered Nova's kiss vividly, and tried to replicate that, but Kali was different. Instead of being slow and sensuous, Kali was vigorous, wild and untamed, as if she had wanted to do this a long time. When she broke away, Ezio felt as if he had been beaten over the head.

"If you think of me as a friend, then how come you fought on my side the first time. There had to have been some curiosity." Ezio murmured.

"Oh there was, just like I was curious about that kiss, but that's all it is, curiosity. You can tell a lot about a person by how he kisses. I can tell a lot about you. It would never work between us."

"Oh? And why do you say that?"

"You're too… Gentle for me, if you know what I mean." Kali said, smiling and laying back down on her pillows. Ezio was about to reply when the medic in charge of Kali rushed in, and began fussing over her. It wasn't long before he decided that Ezio was too much stress for her. Ezio had a sneaky suspicion that he had almost walked in on the kiss. Ezio gladly walked out of the tent with Sparx at his side, a knowing smile on his face.

"So, how was it?" Ezio stopped to consider his answer.

"Passionate."

"Oh man dude she's hot for you. Damn purple dragons get all the ladies." He said, frowning and crossing his arms. Ezio looked at him a bit surprised.

"Pff, she's not hot for anyone. She's about as ornery, stubborn and hard headed as Frost, and she acts a lot like the Ice Guardian too come to thi – " Ezio paused mid-step, "Hang on, Sparx. How old is Kali?"

"About twenty or so years old. Why?" He asked, stopping and looking around at the purple dragon.

"Do you know who her parents are?" Ezio asked.

"I, uh. Yes, I do know, but I probably shouldn't say." Sparx said, waving his arms around, and turning away.

"Sparx, come on, I need to know if this is ever going to work out between us." Ezio said, running around the tiny wasp and facing him. Sparx considered him for a long time.

"Smaug is her father."

"WHAT?" Several passing creatures stared.

"I told you I shouldn't have said. Hang on, where are you going?" But Ezio didn't answer; he was already flying back towards the pavilion. He dived inside and turned right towards the medic, but more noticed what he was working on.

"Ezio! He said leave for a reason!"

"Ah shit! Sorry, sorry! I'll wait outside!"

"Got that damn right buddy!" Ezio heard Kali shout back as he ducked out of the tent. Sparx came floating up with a knowing grin on his face, but didn't say anything. The warm sun on Ezio's face soon lulled him into a doze, and not until a shadow fell over him did Ezio realize who was standing in front of him.

"Ugh, what Smaug?"

"The Dark Lord requested your presence." Smaug said with a scowl on his face. Ezio was awake immediately.

"What did he say he wanted?"

"I do not know! Why don't you ask him yourself?" Smaug asked, snarling.

"Watch it Smaug. I don't like you, and you don't like me, but I can still whoop your ass." Smaug only sneered as Ezio walked away.

It had been a while since Ezio had actually walked through the camp, and what he saw was highly disturbing. Everywhere he went, he saw more swords, more suits of armor, everything, mostly ranged weaponry. Before he knew it, Ezio was at the entrance to the giant glazed glass pavilion that Malefor used as a throne room.

"Ah! Ezio, good. I have a job for you." Malefor said, scowling down at the small dragon.

"I'm almost afraid to ask what it is. What's with all the war preparations?" Ezio asked, scowling back with just as much intensity.

"I'm glad you asked, cause that all has to do with you! For the next week we are going to focus on only one thing, your elements. I hope for you to approach the efficiency of light with both gravity and life." Malefor said, walking towards the door, "Come! We have much to do! First, you need a suit of armor, and I think you have already taken care of that with Anvil."

"Indeed, I have." Ezio said, leading the way towards Anvils forge. The loud ringing of a sword on stone reached their ears as soon as Ezio edged the door open. The room was dark, lit only by a roaring fire in the blazing blast furnace. Anvil was over by a spinning whetstone, sharping a massive blade as an Ogre stood in the corner, watching.

"Ah! Ezio good, I was wondering when you would be – Lord Malefor!" Anvil stopped his work and bowed low at once. The ogre had done so without saying anything.

"Please, Anvil, continue your work, I shall not disturb you. Ezio needs his armor." Malefor said quietly.

"Of course, right away. Ezio come quickly, we need to get this all on, and make sure it fits properly." Anvil approached a small neat stack of metal plates. Ezio approached him, and lifted the helmet and gently test fitted it without actually letting it rest on his head.

"It fits beautifully Anvil, thank you."

"It is made of folded Titanium plating, so it will resist even full size artillery shells. Mind you, the shock will still knock you out." It looked nothing like titanium, as it was painted a brilliant shade of white, which was pearlescent in nature. There were many pieces in similar style to Alpha Squadron's armor.

"Alright, I'll take this right now then." Ezio said suddenly, gathering up the pieces.

"Wait, don't you want to try it on?"

"I have someone I need to meet here soon. Malefor, when do we start?" Ezio asked, turning to the dragon.

"Tomorrow, three hours before normal. Bring your armor." Malefor said, scowling even further.

"Thank you, sir." And with that, Ezio turned and bolted out of the forge, running towards the medical pavilion. However, when he reached it, sliding to a halt, Kali was nowhere to be seen. Ezio turned and raced back to the barracks, but on his way, he caught sight of a familiar black tail flitting out of sight, on the outskirts of a tent. However, when he rounded the corner, all he could find of his female friend was a sly wink and the swish of a wing among the creatures racing here and there. It was starting to grow dark now, and was difficult to see as the purple raced through the camp in pursuit of his comrade. Finally, he broke through a wall of ogres, and found himself right on the edge of the camp, where the tropical forest met the camp in an abrupt wall.

"Kali?" Ezio called. The crowd behind him seemed suddenly muted. He looked back over his shoulder, to check to see if anyone was watching. And then he dove into the thick foliage.

Now Ezio was plunged into almost complete twilight, with shafts of light flitting through the cover of the trees. A flash of tail blade here, a spot of greyish horn there. Kali was indeed in her element. If Ezio didn't know what he was looking for, he would have attributed her subtle appearances to tricks of light or an oddly shaped leaf. And she moved fast too, Ezio was impressed with her stealth at the same time of her speed, he had issues keeping up with her. His light element helped little, as a bright flash proved to blind him for at least twenty minutes before he could see properly again. It was probably a good two hours after dark before Ezio rounded a corner and slammed full force into Kali.

The two spun around for a moment, before Kali pinned him completely, spread eagle on the ground.

"You really like relationships, don't you Ezio?" Kali asked him, flirting heavily with him.

"Eh, it keeps things simple." Kali chuckled softy as she gently brushed her lips against his, and was suddenly pulled full force into the embrace, the same wild unrestrained passion Ezio had felt before floating on the inside of his mouth.

And yet…

"No… Mph… Kali… mmm… STOP!" Ezio said, yanking himself from out under the dragoness, "Whatever happened to 'It wouldn't work'?"

"With all the preparations I saw today, I thought our days were numbered."

"And?"

"And there is some love there, and I think if things were to go right, it would work beautifully." Kali finished, approaching him, and gently swaying her hips. Ezio's adrenaline skyrocketed, and he fought to keep himself from pouncing on the dragoness. Why was he fighting? What was still there that was keeping him from doing anything? One word kept pounding through his mind…

Nova…

"No, no, stop, Kali, for a second, and stop driving me crazy!"

"Wait, stop? Why should I… "Kali stopped as she pondered Ezio, "So that's what it was."

"What?"

"The lack of substance in your kiss. It was there, but it was weakened. I thought it might be more like caressing, like soft love, but it's not. It's doubt. What is it? You don't have confidence in yourself or what?"

"No, it's not that, it's… It's an old friend. That's what she is Ezio, she's just a friend, so why am I holding back?"

"Because she's not just a friend anymore is she?"

"I… I don't know. While I was a human, we both knew that it wouldn't work, so we were the closest of friends. Now that I'm a dragon…"

"It's different, isn't it?"

"I was transformed here, and one of the things to help keep me sane is her face. Now that I'm transformed though, I don't know how she's going to take me, whether I'm going to be the same guy to her, whether she'll even recognize me." Ezio said, sitting down and clamping his claws on the bridge of his nose.

Kali was silent for a while, watching him, then…

"So why did you follow?" Kali asked. Her voice sounded strained, and Ezio looked up to see a trail of a tear running down her muzzle.

"I… I…"

"There was some love there, wasn't there?" Kali asked.

"I…"

"You know, that's something you normally tell a lady friend when you meet her for the first time? I have another girl friend? Him, maybe? I'm NOT GETTING PULLED INTO THAT!" Kali turned, and with Ezio's mouth still hanging open, she smacked him full in the mouth, leaving long shallow marks in the side of his nose. With his mouth still hanging open, she took flight, and in a matter of two seconds disappeared from sight.

Ezio woke early in the morning, finding the clearing he had found as a sleeping spot covered in soft mist. His internal clock told him he still had an hour till he needed to meet Malefor. Slowly, he rose to his feet, and stretched popping his joints heavily, and rolling his stiff neck. He was just gathering up the last piece of his armor when a loud buzzing filled his left ear.

"Morning Sparx." Ezio said, not turning his head. He didn't want to anger another friend.

"Morning lovebird."

"Not this time…"

"I know, it was sarcasm. Kali told me everything." Sparx said.

"What did she say?"

"She feels sorry for exploding last night, and she still wants to be friends. Just friends, but friends none-the-less."

"Good, when I get back tonight, I'll apologize."

"No need, she's on her way." This time Ezio whipped his head around so fast that Sparx was flung into the forest.

"Sparx?" his call was answered a couple seconds later.

"Goddamn son of a bitch!"

Ezio laughed as he stacked the armor neatly into the pile that he had received it, placing the helm on top. The set was actually quite small, and Ezio noticed that all the pieces stacked perfectly together, yet they looked incredible, with long smooth flowing lines, reminding him of the tribal scallops that were on his Mustang back home. He had just finished bundling the pieces together, when he heard the hissing of wings behind him.

Kali approached him this time with her head down. Ezio could see the dirty streaks against her nose where the tears had run.

"I'm sorry, Ezio. I suppose the reason I'm so angry is that for so long I have had nothing to live for in this life. If Malefor's power hadn't prevented me from doing so, I would have committed suicide long ago. You have no idea what it's like for me. For almost twenty years now have I been in his service, and it has been absolute torture every minute, of every hour, of every day. And now when someone finally comes into my life, a male, whom is handsome, and strong, and the kind of guy that might not be perfect for me, but is excellent and will take care of me none-the-less, and love me with all his heart, and then is suddenly yanked away from me, I lost a bit of control." Kali said. She started weak first, but went stronger as she went along, finally looking him full in the eye.

"And I should have told you about Nova. I'm sorry Kali, I really am, and you know that I love you. In fact, I love you in many ways like Nova. For many weeks now, it has been a strong brotherly love. You helped keep my head above the darkness. It was the same way with Nova."

"And now?"

"I suppose my heart is split two ways. In one direction, it is Nova. In the other, it is you. I love you Kali, with all my heart."

"It's for some stupid noble reason that we can't be together, isn't it?"

"Would you have me ruin someone else's life for the happiness of your own? Trust me, Kali, if any sign comes up of Nova not returning my love, I will most certainly come to you, and you'll know it, because there will be no limit to my passion." Kali smiled at that. She gestured at the armor on the ground, sniffling slightly.

"You need to put that on, now that you have it Malefor will be expecting you to wear it in your skirmishes. Where you gonna put it on back at the barracks?"

"No I was gonna head to the Island first and then don it."

"You'll want someone to help; it's a beast without assistance." Kali said smiling slightly.

"Would you like to help?"

"Of course." Kali said, blushing heavily, but grabbing the tail piece first. When Ezio went to help, Kali stopped him silently, and then continued with her work.

Ezio wasn't expecting the pinch at first. Kali yanked on the straps with all her might, and the nylon dug into Ezio's hide. Ezio growled at it, but Kali only chuckled.

"If it doesn't hurt, then it's not tight enough." Kali said quietly.

Kali moved with silence, Ezio had some suspicion that she was partly using her element. And she was very evocative during the entire process. Ezio had learned that the only dragons to wear armor besides him were Malefor and Smaug. The others had been deemed expendable enough to not be given armor. So Ezio knew this was the first time she had ever helped someone with armor, but she never showed it. Whenever she touched Ezio's body, it was like the whisper of wind upon his skin, and he felt himself shiver with pleasure. Finally, she lifted the helmet and placed it upon his head, elongating the touch as she drew her paw down around his exposed jaw line. She finished the entire process with a deep kiss, and Ezio found himself in a small moan of longing and pleasure. Finally, Kali broke off the kiss herself, and Ezio felt as if he had just been smacked upside the head again with her tail.

"You're gonna be late." Kali said quietly. Ezio had let the entire process happen because he had been thinking the exact same thing Kali had been thinking. This might be the last time they even saw each other. Ezio knew that he was going to be worked to the bone this week, and he had a suspicion that there would be more than enough for Kali to do.

"I'll fly fast. You know what I said. Just friends?" Ezio said, winding his tail around in a gesture of a pact.

"For now." Kali said with a sly smile. Ezio then turned and jumped into the air, vaulting over the tree tops and angling towards the shining silver sea.

_Just friends, yeah right._


	6. Chapter 6

"Finally, some time to ourselves, eh?" Spyro said as he and Cynder took their nightly walk through the cities gardens. The moon and stars overhead shone brightly off of their polished scales, and Spyro was almost dazzled every time he looked down at Cynder and saw the celestial heavens reflect in her emerald eyes. Finally, Spyro could take it no more.

"Ancestors, Cynder, do you know how beautiful you look? Your eyes are just stunning!" Spyro said, not realizing that his mouth was slightly agape.

"Awe, you sound just like Blaze when he's talking to Kura. I think she kind of surprised him though." Cynder said.

"Why's that?"

"Well, she took everything a bit fast, one night and they're together. They'll be announcing that they're life mates any day now. Not only that, but I think Blaze is used to females that are smaller and less powerful than he is. Now he has Kura, whom is so much he doesn't know how to handle her. They'll both be generally about the same size actually, considering Blaze is so big, and Kura is small for a wyvern." Cynder ticked off on her claws.

"Yeah, he does seem slightly shell shocked whenever she was around, but then Blaze informs me that she can also French kiss quite well. Course then that kind of reminds me of someone." Cynder smiled guiltily at his words, and they shared a light kiss before moving on. Spyro sighed and looked up at the stars.

"Nobel is worried about the lack of shadow force activity. Spies tell us they still have New Warfang, though it only has a skeleton crew. But, besides that, we've heard nothing. It's almost as if were not at war right now." Spyro said, thinking out loud, "It makes me nervous."

"Oh please, you shouldn't worry about them, live in the moment right now, and roll with the punches as they come."

* * *

"I swear, if it doesn't happen soon, I'm going to freeze them together until it does." Frost said from their cover. Quake beside her was shaking with silent mirthless laughter.

"Do not rush it Frost, it will happen. It's more a matter of when, not if." He said, getting himself under control. The two continued to watch.

"I honestly think Cynder longs for it, but Spyro either seems to be oblivious, or resistant, I can't tell." Frost said, peering through the makeshift binoculars they had made. Quake had supplied the casing, and Frost had personally crafted the lenses.

"You know we could almost go into business with these. You even got the zoom and focus to work." Quake said, pulling his pair away from his eyes, "Probably a gem per pair."

"Seems a bit low, I'd say three." Frost said, still keeping her set trained on the two purple dragons before her. The two had stopped and laid down in a cops of tall grass, facing the open sky.

* * *

"You know Spyro; I did want to thank you for something." Cynder said, still staring out at the Virgo cluster.

"Hmm?"

"You listened. You disbanded the squadron, so that we could spend our days together. Exactly what I wanted. You know I think you deserve something for that." She said, sitting up and rolling over so that her forepaws were over him. She had a very devious smile on her face.

"Whoa, Cynder, going a bit fast here, aren't we?" Spyro said. He didn't know why, but he was somewhat surprised. And what about Frost and Quake watching them? He didn't want there to be any witnesses. Unbeknownst to the two guardians, he had sensed Frost and Quake recently when he and Cynder had passed by their hiding spot. Spyro had learned long ago to use the smallest part of every one of his elements at once to detect nearby enemies. His Ice and Earth elements had picked them up easily. He had been impressed with Quakes camouflage, and the fact that he had the guts to go on nightly outings with Frost.

"What are you so worried about? Don't you want this present?" Cynder said, leaning up against Spyro's chest, and pressing her pelvis to his.

"Whoo, Cynder, your hearts beating about as fast as mine is. You sure about this?" Spyro asked, looking around.

"Positive."

"Then hang on a second." Spyro rolled so that he was facing the floating island to the left of theirs. A lightning bolt was conjured in his paw, "You got three seconds guys!"

* * *

"Is he talking to us?" Frost asked, and for the first time she surfaced from her binoculars, small rings around her eyes where the instruments had been pressed into her skin. Quite suddenly, there was a loud bang, and the two dragons felt a very large surge as they were electrocuted.

"Time to move!" Quake said, turning and jumping into the air, Frost following him, dodging a second lightning bolt.

* * *

"He's shoots! He scores! And the crowd goes wild!" Cynder shouted into the silence. Spyro laughed at that.

"Now then where were we?" Spyro asked.

"We were making a family, remember?" Cynder said, breathing in deeply.

* * *

"Well that was very educational." Quake said. Frost chuckled, but said nothing else, "I'm simply glad that it finally happened, and that we know about it right away, otherwise we might have issues on battlefield."

"Yeah, I'm glad I know about it as well. I envy them though." Frost said.

"What, have you never had a relationship Frost?" Quake asked.

"Oh I have, and the result that you see here came through a very complex and horrid series of events. Let it suffice to say that I've moved on the best I could. What about you?" Frost asked. Quake could tell she was genuinely interested.

"I had a mate after the first war. She was beautiful beyond belief, and it was she who nursed me back to health after the war ended." Quake said, remembering back to that point took a great effort for him.

"And then?"

"And then she died. It was during the second siege on Warfang. Our sector of the city was hit by a trebuchet. We weren't hit directly, but a piece of shrapnel hit her in the back of the head, in just the right spot. She died on impact." Quake was having issues controlling himself, it was tough reliving his memories. Frost saw he was at his limit, and didn't push any further.

"So now you know why I'm on Alpha Squadron. Or at least why I joined." Quake finished.

"So what happens after Malefor dies?" Frost asked. She too had her own reasons for wanting Malefor dead, but doubted they would be revealed tonight.

"I move on. I find another mate, and we live in peace. We have a family." Quake said. He looked quickly out of the corner of his eye at Frost, but she didn't notice at all.

"What do you think you'd like in a mate." Frost asked, still flying onwards.

"Someone whom is beautiful beyond all measure. Someone whom is tough, but caring, who can heal the greatest of wounds." Frost was listening, and she was starting to slow as his description came out.

"Someone who's personality on the outside is cold as Ice, but on the interior is caring towards everyone around her, and takes it as her responsibility to help whomever is in need, even if they don't realize it."

The two dragons were stopped now, hovering in mid-air.

"Let me stop you there before you go any further and say something you regret. This supposed mate, is she close?"

"Not far, yes."

"Cause she sounds awfully familiar."

"Oh I think you might know her quite well, Frost." Frost went to go and open her mouth, but was cut off by someone shouting their name.

"Frost! Quake!" It was Kura, flying rapidly towards them. A look of worry was pasted on their face.

"Kura! What is it? Is Blaze injured?"

"What? No, I was on patrol, when suddenly we were all called in. All of us! We've got something big to show you. It would seem as if Malefor has decided to show his ugly face again." Quake and Frost both swore at the same time, then pelted off in the direction of the military command center.

* * *

"One of our recons got an image of this, a Nighthawk. Were lucky we even got it, all of our efforst have been focused towards New Warfang." Goliath said, his paw turned towards an image on one of the light screens that surrounded the room. Everybody was there, even Spyro and Cynder, whom Blaze had accidentally stumbled in on. Nova was leaning up against Apollo. Despite the fact that she was still royally pissed at him, she couldn't help but be happy to see his face again. He was like a candle in the dark for her, after losing Ezio.

The image on the screen was probably the atmosphere setting item. A very fuzzy photo of two dragons in the middle of a small camp. One was jet black, looking a lot like Cynder, but the other was a deep brilliant purple.

"Who is he?" Nova asked, looking at the image.

"We don't know. The female dragon at his side is a mystery to us as well, but we think they are companions. This is very disturbing indeed. If Malefor has procured a second purple dragon for his uses, it means he matches us in power." Spyro said, staring up at the screen.

"Why does he seem so familiar?" Nova said, taking a step forward, and zooming in on the dragons face.

"You two have met?" Apollo said, arching an eyebrow.

"No, I know I've never met the dragon, but it's something in the eyes. They look so familiar…"

"Nova?"

"Hmm?" She turned back to find that she was right up near the screen, and that everyone was watching her. Her facial scales went a deep crimson.

"Sorry."

"From what we can tell, these are scout groups, which are a good thing. It means that they don't know our current location. Which puts us at an advantage."

"Yes, for the first time, Guerilla warfare will be plausible. We need to send a strike group against this scouting on right now, wipe it out." Spyro said, stepping forwards, "I will lead."

"Spyro!" It was Cynder, "A word?"

* * *

"What just happened tonight?"

"Cynder, what…"

"Us mating! Was it all just a fluke?"

"This is different, and you know it. Fighting Malefor, which I will do, is one thing. Fighting this young guy is another. I might not know much about him, but he's about my age, I can at least tell that."

"He actually looks a bit younger. But think about it Spyro. Where did he come from? And another thing is how did our forces get away? We know with shadow dragons that their stealth capabilities are outstanding, so how did our nighthawks get out of there unscathed. They think they pulled off the greatest recon of all time, I overheard them bragging about it in the pub."

"What are you saying? That those two let themselves be seen. Either they are two of the stupidest dragons alive, doubtful, or they're on our side."

"You think they're with us?"

"Nothing else makes sense, and if that's so, then you can't kill them, you need to communicate with them. Ask him who he is and what he wants. Both of them, cause if she is truly even his friend, then she'll be on his side. And Nova is right; I think I've seen him somewhere before as well, though I can't say where."

"We'll soon find out."

* * *

"So let me get this straight. Every purple dragon controls multiple elements. Theoretically, a dragon CAN master more than a single element, but it's exceedingly difficult. Each element has a myriad of uses, and it's power is only limited by a user's ingenuity. Theoretically, one dragon could easily beat a purple dragon in combat if he or she is ingenious enough. True masters of their powers will be able to do virtually anything with them. For instance an Ice Dragon could make a diamond with his or her powers and it could be flawless. It would be difficult to see the connection of Diamond to Ice, but it's there." Kali ticked off on her claws as they walked through the forest. The two had secretly made partial contact with the allied forces, and were now waiting for some kind of response. Ezio felt somewhat exposed when he knew an attack was coming, but not when or from where. He had allowed a contingent of the nighthawks to get a camera shot in from their hiding spot about two miles away.

"Correct. What else?" Ezio prompted. He wanted Kali to be ready for anything if she encountered Spyro and Cynder.

"Every purple dragon controls four elements. Spyro's are Fire, Earth, Ice, and Electricity. Cynders are Poison, Wind, Shadow, and Sound, correct? And yours are Light, Gravity, Life, and Reality. I still don't get how that last one works though."

"It's a morphing power, and I still have issues with it. It basically lets me contort Space and Time, making something similar to a wormhole. It allows me to warp and deflect items away from me. But it's tough for me to control. Thankfully, time and space is a very stable thing, so once I release the element in the middle of a move, it snaps back in place, almost like a rubber band. Yeah, think of yourself trying to mentally pull a rubber band out of place, almost to breaking point." Ezio finished.

"What happens if the rubber band snaps?"

"It won't, it takes an infinite amount of mental strength to snap it, which no one has. Now what else?"

"On top of his or her four elements, each purple dragon also controls convexity and time, which are highly fragile. Now my question is what's convexity?"

"A good question. No one really knows, not even Malefor. Some say it's all the elements combined. Rubbish, not even Malefor controls all the elements. Some say it's just highly concentrated energy. Again rubbish, cause if it were, than it would have burning properties. I personally think its antimatter. A negative of the normal chemicals we know. Something that should never be in contact with this world. Very powerful in concentrated amounts, and highly explosive. So convexity is simply everything. The delivery system and such, but it theoretically has unlimited power."

"So how does the shield work? Does it just soak everything up?"

"From what I understand, yes, except convexity itself, which the shield has no effect on."

"OK, I think I've got it now. So when do we fight these guys?" Kali asked, looking around.

"Soon, very soon."

"You seem nervous."

"I'm about ready to go into battle against my friends, and I don't want to hurt any of them." Ezio said, rubbing his temples. He had removed his helmet for the lunch break to give his head some breathing room. Now he wished he hadn't. The sudden release of pressure and heat had given him a massive migraine. On top of that, he was still waiting for the call of…

"Contacts!"

The two dragons bolted upright, knocking their lunch over the ground. The small encampment was a sudden flurry of activity as orcs grabbed crossbows and ogres grabbed clubs.

"Move, move! Kali! On me!" The two dragons leapt into the air, and saw the oncoming foe. Two purple dots, and two more flanking those two, one white, one black. Ezio's heartrate began to increase as he jammed his helmet on.

"We'll surprise them! Do not aim to kill!"

"I still gotta be defensive Ezio! I'll try not to do any lasting damage!" Ezio then delved into his elements, pushing some of his energy at Kali, and the two rocketed forwards on partial superluminous speed. The four enemies also did the same. Ezio knew then whom he was up against.

Right at the last second, both groups slowed for the initial assault. Ezio knew what Nova was going to do. She had shown him many times. She was going to split off after him, climbing in a shallow climb, then turn one hundred and eighty degrees and dive down on top of him, increasing her speed and energy. Spyro was trying to catch his eye with a feral snarl on his face, in an attempt to intimidate him, but Ezio knew that he would be hard pressed against Spyro and Nova together. So he would out maneuver Spyro, and go after Nova, whom he knew he could match. To his right, Kali turned 100 degrees, and dove downwards, Eclipse meating her in the turn, and the two clashed together, in a flurry of teeth and claws.

_Don't overdo it Kali…_

Ezio matched Nova as she climbed and then rolled, and then descended, but then at the last millisecond, used a backwards burst of light to stall himself in mid-air, gaining altitude on Nova, and then used another burst to catch up, Clawing at the female as he came down on top of her. Nova tried to shake him off with a double burst of light, but Ezio simply turned in mid-air, funneling the energy at his claw tips, and pushed it towards Cynder at a slower speed, sending Spyro bolting after the deadly spear. Kali had resurfaced by now, and was dodging and repelling shadow bursts back at Cynder, whom was preoccupied. The bolt of light hit Cynder squarely in the back. Ezio heard her scream, and heard Spyro shout her name, then go pelting after her. The sound cut through Ezio like a lance, but he pushed on. Finally, Ezio was able to wrap his claws around Nova's throat as they continued to fall.

"Hello again, Nova."

"I knew I knew you from somewhere! Who are you!" Nova asked over the wind as they continued to fall.

"Look harder, Nova, you'll find out. In fact, you probably already know." Ezio had worked on this for a while now. He had been banned from actually revealing his identity, but it was possible to give them clues, "In fact, all of you know, you just gotta look."

"I have looked! I can't get you out of my head!" Nova shouted. They had begun to fall through the massive trees now, and finally, Ezio yanked back with his element, slowing both of them. Ezio set Nova down on the ground slowly, and then used his gravity element to keep her in place on the forest floor.

"Now I will talk, and you will listen Nova."

"Who are you!"

Ezio paused for a bit, trying not to give anymore cryptic messages. Finally, "A friend. Now stop trying to kill me and Kali."

"The shadow force lieutenant? If your protecting her, then you're no friend of mine."

"Enough! She is being held against her will. Both of us are, by Malefor. We are fighting him, and have plans for escape. The first thing I need you to do is get everyone underground. I cannot tell you what he's planning, his spell forbids me, but I can tell you what you need to do. The second thing you need to do is get in contact with the humans. All of them. Tell them they need to get into bunkers right away, anything surrounded in concrete, and to not come out. Tell them to take simple radios, and then when the coast is clear, send out a radio signal worldwide. Once that's done, they need to amass their armies, get everything together. I'll meet you after the apocalypse, a free dragon. And I'll be there for you again, Nova." Ezio said this all rather quickly. Nova listened to it all. Then Ezio lifted his head and roared, and then took to the sky. Kali met him, and they flew till the four dragons were out of sight, then Ezio let his element drain from him, releasing his hold on it, and knew then what he had to do.

"Kali, I need you to contact the resistance, give them the code phrase 'To arms'."

"Why?"

"We're going to fight for our freedom…"


	7. Chapter 7

"So what now?"

"Good question Apollo, what ideas do you have?"

"You're the guardian here."

The two light dragons quipped on and on as they flew north. Long ago they had hit the Florida cost and were now streaking towards New York City. The plan was to contact the United Nations representatives in the UN capitol building to alert them of the coming danger.

"We don't even know what's going to happen though. It makes me feel as if a storm is coming, but I have no idea which direction it's coming from." Nova said, looking towards the horizon.

"We can only prepare. Frankly, I'm glad I'm doing something now, I was afraid of what would happen if I just stayed passive this entire time." Apollo said, twirling in mid-air to check their six.

"Was that your plan? To just stay in the shadows the entire time?"

"I, uh…"

"Apollo, you keep on acting as if everything is just fine. And it's not. You think that just cause your back means I'm going to join you and love you exactly the same as I did fifty thousand years ago."

"And why not."

"Because things change! And I thought you were dead! Things changed in the two years after I left Concurrent Skies! I became a guardian! I met other dragons of my own age! I fought in wars! And something else that happened was I fell in love!" Nova said, turning on the light dragon.

Apollo kept flying a bit before he absorbed the words.

"You what! With whom!" Apollo cried out, "When were you going to tell me?"

"I thought you were dead Apollo, so don't be going and getting jealous! In fact, I held myself back, because I felt guilty about leaving you behind!"

Nova turned again and darted forwards, using her element to pull her along. Apollo was able to keep stride, but only just.

"What would you have done if you were in my place?" Nova asked quite suddenly coming to a halt. Apollo thought it over, for a long time.

"It would have been tough, but I would have moved on." Apollo said, "What difference does it make though? I'm here now."

"Do you really think it's that simple? That I can quite suddenly renounce the one I loved after you, and just rejoin you? Now my heart is split two ways, one towards grief, the other towards joy. When the one I loved was yanked away from me, it felt as if I lost you again, Apollo. And when it was all done, do you know what I felt? Nothing! No emotion and the best I can understand it is that all the emotion was drained out of me!"

"So what is this then!"

Nova paused her mouth open, "I guess your arrival kind of yanked me out of it."

The two hovered in mid-air for a bit, each thinking hard. Apollo jerked with his head, "Come on, we gotta keep moving."

The two continued flying on in silence, till Apollo broke the thick wall between them.

"So what do you want me to do about it?"

"Back off. You keep on acting like we can go back to the way things were, and it's not that simple."

Both of them were lost in thought as they crossed over the Pennsylvania border, not paying attention to either of their surroundings.

* * *

"Sir! We have a pair of bogies about five miles out, inbound fast!" The Lieutenant cried to the colonel up standing behind the desk in the back of the room.

"What's the transponder code, ensign?" The colonel asked from his podium.

"There is none sir, all we know is it is a small blip on the screen. And their speed and altitude as well. They are inbound at mach 2.0 over our air space, ten thousand feet. And not responding, sir!"

"Then scramble air defenses! Send Ariel squad up!"

* * *

"OK, so let me get this straight. The UN is a collection of representatives of most major nations. Mostly they debate what's best overall for the world. And were going to drop into the most populated city in the world, New York City, at their headquarters building, to tell them the world is going to end."

"That sums it up in a nutshell, yes. What I'm worried about is – "

Her sentence was cut off by a sudden roar of two fighter jets, flying beneath them, and climbing to meet the two creatures.

* * *

"Ariel one, you'll meet the target in about a minute. Ariel three and four will meet you in thirty; they're setting up to form on your wing." The radio crackled in Ariel one's cockpit. Two more raptors joined the first two, forming on the outside of the wing on left and right.

"Roger that command, mach two has just been achieved, will be intercepting soon, I have the bogies on radar." Ariel one keyed in his microphone.

"Afternoon lead. Ariel three, when you gonna get that ring?" Ariel four chimed up over the radio.

"As soon as you get a girl four." Ariel three responded.

"At that rate three, you'll never be married." Ariel one chimed in over his radio.

"Lead, how's the kid doing?" Two started up. Ariel one looked over at the small picture of his baby son.

"He just said his first words this week. Father." Ariel one said more to himself than his teammates.

"Awe."

"Hehe, cute kid lead."

"Shut up guys. All wings punch it, let's catch these bogies. Maximum thrust." The four fighters' afterburners flared, rocketing the jets forward.

"Ariel squad, you're about to reach visual contact with bogies. Ten seconds."

"Roger that command, we have visual in five, four, three, two…" There was a very long thick pause.

"Ariel one, what have you got?"

Static followed, then…

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." A bright white dragon with a red chest and golden wings was hovering in front of him, flying at Mach 2, backwards, and waving energetically.

"Son of a bitch."

"Go on lead, what is it?" Command crackled over the radio.

"Um, it's a dragon, command. I kid you not…"

There was some stunned silence.

"Say again lead?"

"A dragon, command. All wings confirm you're seeing what I am."

"We got it lead. I see what you see, though I still don't believe it."

The dragon and its companion who was of similar color, gestured with its paw for the jets to follow. It then turned towards the base and headed towards the main runway.

"Sir, I think it wants to communicate with us. We are inbound now."

* * *

"This is above top level ladies and gentlemen. The president has just discretely raised our threat level to defcon 4. We are at war readiness people. And what we have found out does not leave this room." The commanding general announced to the joint chiefs, and the president of the time, an Independent President, named John Patoni. Presently, the president addressed the room.

"So what did we find out gentlemen?"

"This, Mr. President." The General pressed a button on his remote, and an image of the two dragons, eight feet tall, greeting the fighter pilots of Ariel squadron.

"These two are what we call, Draconis Europis. The European Dragon." The intensity of interest jumped dramatically, all the joint chiefs leaned forwards to get a look at the screen, "These two, not an hour ago, flew into Langley Air Force base in Virginia, and addressed themselves as Nova, and Apollo, Nova being female Apollo being male. They landed with friendly intentions at Langley, but requested that the Colonel in command phone ahead. They are on their way to New York City as we speak."

"What kind of threat level are they?" The air force chief asked.

"We believe that these two themselves don't pose any risk, however, they intend to reveal their existence to the UN council. They also told the Colonel that they have knowledge that is essential to global security."

Stunned silence followed these sentences.

"And you're taking them seriously?"

"Well, sir, they obviously know what they are doing, because if a human called us up and said two dragons told them that the world was going to end, we would hang up on them. Now we have a whole new issue, we know nothing of their capabilities, and they are outside our jurisdiction, they are not human, nor are they American. They told us they are from southern France. And the female's accent made her sound like she was French too." The general finished. The President stopped him as he went to speak again.

"The female's accent?"

"Yes sir, they both spoke in plain clear English, even if they both had accents." The general said, not meeting the president's eyes.

"Well then, suggestions everyone?" The president asked. Everybody was silent; looking at each other's stunned faces.

"Sir?" An aid over in the corner raised his hand.

"Yes son, what is it?" The president said. The man stepped into the light.

"Why not let them speak? If they are on our land, we should treat them as guests. It seems as if they like us, they want to help, and we could stand to learn something from them, even if it is just weaponry or aircraft." The aid said.

"What's your name son?" The president asked, looking at the young man.

"Lenny Kravits, sir. No relation to the singer." The aid said with a small smile.

"Well then Lenny. What would you suggest for getting to know them? We know nothing about them; they could run right into the UN building and cause havoc!" The Army joint chief commented.

"They look friendly enough to me sir." The chief just chuckled and shook his head, sitting back down, "Listen, what are you gonna do anyways? You still know nothing about them, and if legends are true, then you're going to need one hell of a battle plan to even combat two of them, who knows how many more there are. Leave them alone, and don't anger them, and I think they'll help. And if there really is a threat to global security, we need to know as soon as possible, to either keep it from happening, or to minimize casualties."

There was silence after these statements, and finally, the President leaned forwards.

"Son, since you seem so keen on them, you're going to be my official ambassador. Let's get this done people!"

* * *

"There kinda loud aren't they?" Apollo shouted over the roar of the engines of the raptors flying on their wing.

"Aye, but you should see them in a fight! They work well!" Nova shouted back. The flight was now streaking over downtown New York. In the distance, a small helicopter was moving fast across the landscape. The two dragons had been watching that craft for the last half hour.

"What is it?"

"Marine one! It's the president's personal short range transport!" Nova shouted back, eyeing the chopper.

* * *

"Marine one, they are watching you very closely." Ariel one said over his mike

"And I don't blame them lead, I'm watching them as well, it's the president, people are lucky to even see it, much less from the air so closely. Magnificent sight." Number two keyed over his mike

* * *

"Well, Ezio?" Kali asked him as they flew over the Pacific. The water stretched out wherever they looked nothing but blue.

"Are you sure Malefor made land fall?" Ezio asked.

"Yes, I talked to him myself."

"I promised him I would do this, and I am. But I think this is the best way to free ourselves. And it might lead to more dissention. Why did he come back?"

"To watch you. He doesn't trust you."

"Of course he doesn't. And I don't trust him. He revealed how he really felt when he made you fight me. Terrador, are you there?" Ezio spoke into his mike

"Of course, Ezio. Are you ready for this?" Terrador responded.

"No, but let's do this anyways. Hunter, what's the radio traffic like?" Ezio asked.

"Nova has made contact."

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen of the United Nations! My name is Nova Brightscales! I, as you might know from legend, am a dragon! I have come myself to bring you dire news, because I need you to believe my news for the safety of the planet. Right now, the entire earth is in great danger! We have reason to believe a hyper advanced energy source is about to go superballistic, and if it goes unhindered, it will scourge the earth of life, leaving it a barren burnt wasteland. I have seen the results of this energy myself once before, when this planet was destroyed! We believe that this act of global terrorism is not self-conscious." Nova announced to the delegation before her. One of the representatives stood up then. The man had a long beard and a turban wrapped about his head.

"How can we believe you, a creature consigned to myths and legends that this event is not entirely self-conscious? Are you telling me that the doer of this wretched act is not doing it of his own free will?" The representative said to the room. A roar of assent reached the congregation at his words.

"She is telling the facts, ladies and gentlemen!" A voice came from behind the two dragons. Nova turned to find Spyro walking forwards, with the rest of the former Alpha squadron on his tail.

"The United Nations delegation does not recogni –"

"I don't care, frankly! This is a matter of life or death, ladies and gentlemen, and I have just received word that this event is taking place now! My name is Spyro, and I, unlike my comrades, am one of the few creatures who can unleash this terror on the world! Right now, even if we were to launch this second, we would be too late to stop this event from happening, the chain of events has already begun. I believe my comrades and I however, can lessen the blow on this planet, and thus preserve as much of it as possible!" An outraged cry came from this, as well as much screaming. Several people jumped for the exits, but Spyro's voice halted them.

"We must warn the world NOW!"

"How do you know of this mighty Spyro?"

Spyro shifted his eyes nervously, gauging the threat of the situation. It was going to get very bad very quickly.

"This event will take place worldwide before the day has ended! I know of this, because it was the purpose of my kind!" Several more people began screaming and running. Spyro roared to restore order, and most everybody stopped, and dead silence filled the room.

"Every member must alert their nation, immediately, and then find shelter. We believe heavy structures and basements will work. Anything made of concrete or tougher, cram as many people as you can inside. Make sure that there is order, or the deaths will come!"

At that, the doors burst open, and everyone flooded out into the daylight. The sky was unusually calm. To calm in fact, for a busy city. As the noise lessened and people took cover, Spyro could hear why. There was a low deep rumble in the ground.

"Comrades, Alpha Squadron is reformed, effective immediately, all former members on me. Cynder, you will go with Nova to the other side, use as much power as necessary to keep that energy at bay. If you can't, then use convexity to lessen it. All wings launch. Alpha Squadron flies again!"

And the eight dragons took flight, the suits of armor materializing along their bodies, and their light going superluminous as Nova used her energy to rocket them forwards. Before anyone could look up to watch, they were gone…

* * *

"So tell me Terrador, why were you guarding this spot? Is there something special I should know about?" The dark master enquired the captured Ogre. Terrador was having tough time breathing, the shadow energy shrouding him was slowly squeezing the life out of him.

"Argh. Your dead, Malefor. Your already dead anyways, the event has begun." Terrador said, smiling weekly and looking up into the Dark Masters flushed enraged face.

"What event, puny brute? Is that why Ezio is gone, and I cannot reach him?" Malefor said, but his voice was cut off by a low rumble. The dragon looked upwards towards the sky as a massive wall of blazing energy approached the south pacific island. Malefor heaved his bulk into the air, and produced a convexity shield, expanding it to a massive degree to cover the island in his shield.

* * *

"Keep it up Ez! It's working!" Kali shrieked from her convexity shield Ezio had projected for her. The noise was immense, and the strain on Ezio was beginning to show, but it was working. Kali was watching the horizon, which was now burning a golden crimson. All the water in their vicinity had evaporated as the shield had moved outwards, and the only thing left now were the hardest of rocks, and even those were melting from the sheer heat of the scourge.

"They are fighting it!" Ezio gritted his teeth as he forced more and more power into the worldwide attack.

"Who?"

"Them! Yes! That's it Alpha Squad! Fight it! Push with your all!" Ezio grinded his teeth into his tongue, pushing even harder. He felt tendons in his muscles snapping. And then he felt something break.

"NO!" Ezio stopped then, letting the energy run on, "Kali, the eastern border just broke! It's rushing towards Tokyo! I think something stopped pushing!"

Ezio continued to feel the energy flowing through him, and he was still able to control it to a slight degree. He felt the borders close up and then break again. The energy wall was about fifty miles from Tokyo now, and still moving forwards slowly. Finally, the wall was two miles from Tokyo when it shuddered to a halt. He could feel the pressure points of Alpha Squadron holding it together, only four were left now. Then another two, weaker ones joined the fray. And just as quickly, they joined and then broke. And then Ezio felt the final barrier break and fall, and it washed over Tokyo.

"No…"

"Ezio, we gotta do this now, or it'll all be for nothing!"

* * *

Cynder flew low over the ground, projecting a convexity shield behind her as she went. And no matter how much she wanted to, the tears wouldn't stop flowing.

"Oh god their all gone!"

* * *

"Push against that mental barrier, guys, come on!" Sparx yelled at the two dragons. They had landed on the smallest of Islands, to concentrate on breaking through the mental barriers keeping them under Malefor's control. Sparx had flown ahead of the main defectors, he had already broken through, and the changes were startling. He no longer had his stinger, his ugly features; he had returned to his normal glowing dragonfly self.

"Come on Kali! Push!" Finally, Kali was the first; she collapsed on the ground, and coughed hard, as if she had just nearly drowned.

"No, I'm fine Sparx, let's just wait for Ezio." She said, worry pasted across her face. They were free, but they had paid the price for their freedom. Only Ezio wincing every so often told Kali just how much Ezio was going through.

"Hold on Ez."

* * *

"You'll never get me Malefor. Yes the pain is intense, but you fail to realize that there is something more powerful than pain." Ezio said, his scars thrown into sharp relief from the dim lamp hung from the cave roof. There were no exits, and the cave was perfectly round, with a tiny pool in the center, no bigger than Ezio's head. Malefor was currently projecting a convexity field around the pool, barring Ezio's way.

"You say that." Malefor swiped at Ezio, but the claws passed right through Ezio's hide, yet still left several bleeding scars, and Ezio still screamed in pain, "But you have yet to experience true pain. The pain of loss. The pain I feel every flippin day! Because of your bastard friends! All of them be damned to Boyzitsbig's fires! May they be consumed in a torrent of fire and ash!"

"And yet I still have an ultimate weapon! I now know how you worked your healing magic, Malefor! When you first captured me, do you remember? Tell me, what was her name?" Ezio asked. Malefor stopped mid swing. His confidence seemed to fail him like nothing before now, and Ezio was forced to watch as the mighty Malefor transformed from the powerful dragon, to the week shell of a creature.

"Calypso was her name. Beauty such as that has yet to be matched in any way. When Ignitus and I were brothers, we were the best of friends, despite our color differences. Ignitus was always the scholar; he loved his scrolls, while I was the social good looking one. Ignitus always had a dream of getting the profession of Guardian, protector of the realms. I had a dream of finding just the right girl for me. Neither one of us cared about the others interests, but we always cared for each other. And on our twenty fifth birthdays, both of us got our wishes. I successfully courted Calypso, and Ignitus went to live in the temple as a guardian in training. Ah it was love like no other, nothing could match it in power."

"And then the day came when I got even better news. On the exact same day my brother became a guardian, so I became a father-to-be. Oh I was so happy that the fruits of my love with Calypso were paying off. Unlike many purple dragons, I was content to not be in the history books, to live a quiet life raising a family."

"And then everything went wrong. It is still hard for me this day to even consider her gone. The day of childbirth was too tough for her. During the final stage of egg laying, the egg got caught on her intestines. I held my beloved Calypso as she died a slow and painful death from the inside out, and when the egg finally did break free, splitting her open and pulling her entrails out, I found the shell had cracked, and my son, the embryo of my son, the only thing I had left to live for was dead, ripped in two."

"And my brother, the scholar who could have saved her did nothing! No condolences! No visits! He could have saved her! He should have been there for me in my time of pain! And he did NOTHING! And I vowed to myself on that day, during the setting of the sun that the ones responsible for my mate's death, the Guardians would pay!" He finished, roaring at the ceiling, "And no weakling punk like you shall get in my way. NOW MOVE HATCHLING!"

Malefor, instead of swiping his claws this time, spun and his tail blade whistled with deadly intent as it rocketed towards his head.

And Ezio's life flashed before his eyes…

Except, one image kept popping up…

A picture of her on his passenger seat as the green mustang rocketed them home, hoping beyond hope that she would be ok…

A picture of her soaring off into the sunset from his balcony, marveling at her smoothness, strength and mejesty…

An image of her glowing form on the beach, sobbing into his shoulder, the moon shining down on her lament…

A picture of the two of them kissing atop the Eiffel tower, as the dark form of Smaug circled their position, trying to get at them, but coming no where close…

And then finally, a picture of her glowing face, smiling ever so slightly and looking off into the morning sun…

Ezio felt the tug that meant Malefor's tail had hit home, again, in his gut. Ezio looked down to find that Malefor's tail was indeed lodged in his gut, but he felt no pain, felt no blood splattering the ground. Ezio grabbed the tail spade, and as easily as a hot knife through butter, pulled out the spade without a scratch on him. Malefor was looking on with wide eyes.

"NO!"

"You know. You have sequestered love. You only see it anymore as a tool, but do not recognize it for what it is. It is indeed a healing power, but it is not something you can twist to your own uses. Love is untamed and wild. It cannot be controlled or contained. It cannot be described or replicated or duplicated. It just is…" And with that, Ezio squeezed upon the tail spade, and from his hand onwards, Malefor began to glow with a multicolored light, and then faded completely. The convexity barrier vanished and Ezio was able to approach the pool and look downwards. In it, he could see a long shaft of darkness, with a small portal of light at the end. With a deep breath, he dived in.

It took forever to reach the top…


	8. Chapter 8

Cynder walked through the mass of rubble and dust that used to be the metropolis of Tokyo. Everywhere she looked were collapsed buildings, smoldering vehicles, crashed planes, and fallen bridges. Cynder jumped over what was left of the subway system.

"Hello?" Her voice echoed across the desolate landscape. The weather was cold, and it felt foggy, though that was probably mostly attributed to the dust still floating in the air.

"Is anyone there?" She shouted into the silence. The only thing she heard was a slight crackling.

"Gover fzzzzt ha fzzt clear. A fzzzzzt to emerg fzzzzt." Cynder began digging to find a small radio this time, with a heavily busted case. Cynder rattled it, and Spyro's voice came over the speakers.

"Does anyone read me? Hello?" A slight pause, then.

"Wing 8 reporting sir. I'm fine. We'll as fine as I'm going to be. I have wing 3 with me; she's unconscious but healthy as far as I can tell."

"Wing 5 here as well sir."

"Do you have any information on wing 4, 6, and 7?" And then a long silence, "Five, you there?"

"Gone."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"There dead Spyro! All three of them! Quake was clobbered over the head when he tried to escape when he could no longer hold off the wall, and Eclipse and Thunder both got consumed by it! There all dead!"

"Cynder?" Cynders heart began to race. She could only imagine what Spyro was going through right now. The dragoness tilted her head back and shot a purple bolt of convexity into the skies.

"Cynder! Are you all right? One for yes two for no!" Cynder again shot another bolt into the skies.

"Thank god. Concurrent skies is gone, blasted away. Most of half the world is gone actually. I'm going to guess you lost your mike, so we'll meet up with you in Tokyo. We gotta start helping on the recovery effort."

"Spyro, what about the war effort?" All was silent for a while.

"I will go to the United States president, he's got one of the best militaries in the world, and we need his help." Spyro said over the radio. Cynder looked up and saw a golden streak heading towards her, and Nova rocketed down to the ground in front of her, Frost slung across her back. The Ice dragoness was starting to come round.

"Spyro, I'm with Cynder now. Hang on, here she is." Nova passed Cynder her mike.

"Spyro?"

"Cynder, thank the ancestors you're ok. Oh god, I wish you were in my arms now. What news have you got for me?" Cynder glanced over at Nova standing next to her. And then she thought of Blaze, currently bolting towards her.

"Um, Spyro…"

"I need to know Cynder."

"Blaze, I'm sorry." Cynder said. She couldn't keep the sorrow out of her voice, and Nova's mouth dropped, "When Eclipse and Thunder dropped, Kura showed up and jumped in. She… She didn't make it."

"Oh ancestors, no."

"Ah man Blaze." Nova whispered. Cynder looked up at her, and placed her paw on Nova's shoulder.

"Kura wasn't the only one to take their place, Nova. I'm sorry, I'm so, so, sorry." Nova got the point, but she sat down and covered her face in her hands.

"Well that makes my life both less complicated and more at the same time."

"You gonna be ok guys?"

Blaze did not respond…

"I'll be fine Cynder." Nova whispered. Frost was up now and rubbing her head.

"I don't believe there all dead." She murmured, "And still, our lives go on. We must start working here soon. There are lives to be saved."

"Indeed. If anything can push me on, it's this. Let's do this." Nova said, getting up and shaking the dust off of her brilliant white scales.

"When I get my hands on that purple bastard I'm going to kill him, I swear I will."

* * *

Whoo! Freedom!" Sparx yelled above the wind, doing a spin in midair. On Kali's right side was anvil, which had felt Malefor's controlling magic weakening on him, and he had broken through. On her left side was the huge massive bulk of Terrador, whom had gained his full power and body back, and was able to escape right out from under Malefor's nose. The earth dragon was still relating the story to the creatures on his back, two small creatures whom where Mole-Yar and Mason. Hunter sat backwards, watching the sea fly out from beneath him, his gaze saying everything his mouth did not. Ezio had been unusually quite since they had escaped.

"Anvil, can't you do anything for him? He's so distant. I think its sorrow." Kali whispered, after a while, still watching the purple dragon beat his wings.

"I think he has a vague idea what he's done, even if it wasn't him. My contacts have told me what actually happened." He responded in a low growl of a voice.

**Two weeks prior…**

"You're gonna be late." Kali said quietly. Ezio had let the entire process happen because he had been thinking the exact same thing Kali had been thinking. This might be the last time they even saw each other. Ezio knew that he was going to be worked to the bone this week, and he had a suspicion that there would be more than enough for Kali to do.

"I'll fly fast. You know what I said. Just friends?" Ezio said, winding his tail around in a gesture of a pact.

"For now." Kali said with a sly smile. Ezio then turned and jumped into the air, vaulting over the tree tops and angling towards the shining silver sea.

_Just friends, yeah right._

Ezio's ears began to pound as he approached the Island. Malefor was waiting for him, and like Ezio, he was in full body armor, although it was shimmering elemental shadow armor.

"Now begins the finals of your training. Your elements I have finally been able to figure out. You're kind of a neo Cynder. Your elements are an exact mirror of hers. Spyro is sort of a mid-ground. Now if Cynder has four elements, then you most certainly should as well. While Cynder's elements should be used for negative intentions, yours should indeed use positive ones. She is naturally drawn to me, even if she resists her instincts, because her elements are similar to my intentions." Malefor began.

"If she is drawn to you, then to whom am I drawn?" Ezio interrupted again.

"I do not know, but they are no ally of mine. Your standing orders are to kill that being if you ever do meet them. Now then if this is so, you should have one more element, and after some research, I believe I might have discovered it."

"What might it be?"

"Space or more precisely, reality. Now this element is strange in that unlike light or fire or any other natural elements, this one already exists, you cannot pull it into or out of existence, or you would rip a hole in the fabric of reality, and thus undo all physics and the universe. So thus you can only bend it as such." Malefor stretched out his paw, and a ball of energy appeared. It was the strangest sight Ezio had ever seen. The light around the ball warped and pulled and yanked. It seemed to absorb all light, and at the same time emit an infinite amount of light at the same time. And when the energy snapped back into place when released, there was a very large loud whoosh, and Ezio was yanked forwards a couple of feet.

"If used correctly, it is a very violent element, but very difficult to control. Unlike Fire or Ice, it cannot be combined with other elements. It can only be pulled or yanked. Effectively, with it you can teleport, and-or pull a creature apart molecule by molecule. A very painful way to go, but very efficient. Try now, feel the reality around you and pull."

It was very difficult. When Malefor had said that reality did not like to be yanked he had been right, the first time Ezio tried, it simply snapped him forward a couple of inches, but had taken a huge amount of energy. However, at the end of an hour, Ezio had learned how to teleport, and how to use this new element in combat, practicing on some test dummies. He swore to himself though that he would only use the element offensively if needed. However, at the end of an hour, they had stopped for a short break, and at the end, they laid the element of Reality aside and continued onwards.

That day, Malefor explained two things Ezio had been looking forwards too, Time, and finally convexity, on which the final try, Ezio had been able to produce a full fortified convexity shield. However, when lunch came along, they did not stop, and this confused Ezio. He was even more baffled when Malefor produced a portal for them to go through.

"Convexity shield up before you go through. One more thing to teach." When Ezio walked through, he was presented with a completely alien landscape.

"Portals I will not teach you. They could provide you with a way of escape. However, this lesson will help you prove your loyalty to me, and thus, help you move onwards without me killing you. I will now teach you the purpose of our kind." Malefor said after he had emerged from the portal and closed it.

"The purpose of the purple dragon?" Ezio asked. Finally as the moon in the background drifted by, Ezio realized where he was, and had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"I recognize that surface." Ezio looked towards the sun, which was now tiny, "That's the moon Charon. This is Pluto."

"Exactly young one. Here we can practice this art without fear of repercussions. This planet is devoid of life simply because of the race of purple dragons. Nothing has ever lived here, nor will anything ever live here. The purpose of the purple dragon is to make way for a new age, and to destroy the earth to do so. I want your word right now that will destroy the planet."

_If anytime were the time for fast thinking, it would be now._

"I promise."

"Promise what."

"That I shall destroy the planet."

"Which planet."

_Come on, how do I get out of this._

"The planet Earth."

**Three days later…**

"Ah yes, but you didn't state when, where or how much of it you would destroy." Kali said with a sly smile as they prepared for departure via one of their massive transport ship. A portal was just beginning to open and expand in front of them.

"Then we need to do this as soon as possible. Alert the resistance, we strike in three days at high noon. I have been barred with giving the 'Enemy' any valuable information. It depends on what he sees as valuable. I shall try to help them the best I can." Ezio said, facing into the spray of the waves, as the sun set over what he now saw as the Pacific Ocean.

"I just hope they get a clue." Ezio murmured as Smaug walked by.

"OK, so let's walk through this again. Malefor wants you to…"

"Scout out a suitable location, close to their base of operations. At that point I am to hold position until the main force arrives. This is meant as a diversionary force, to focus their attention elsewhere. After he arrives, I shall hold until his signal, the arrival of Smaug. Smaug shall be present at my point of action. At that point I shall initiate planetary scourge, and Malefor himself will follow up with a strike on all population centers. He shall wipe out the enemy forces, as well as the human ones, and then he shall re-assert the dominance of the draconic race." Ezio finished, a snarl curling on his lips.

"Did you say anything to him?"

"I expressed my dislike of this plan, but what option do I have? Until his hold has weakened on me I am his slave. However, we do have our plan."

"Which is?"

"Pretend to scout out a location, but allow ourselves to be seen. Let them attack, and then get word to them to take cover, for everyone to take cover. At that point, we get as far away from them as possible, acting as if we know the base is in the exact opposite direction. Malefor told me to scout out the location of their base, and so I have. He told me to find them, and so I will. After that, I will follow his directions and hold position, not move, and so I shall. I shall hold until his signal, the arrival of Smaug, and so I shall. We shall then attack Smaug, send him running. Smaug will never reach Malefor before I initiate the planetary scourge. I do that to keep the illusion up, but he will have zero warning until he sees the wall of energy coming at him, at which point he will have more issues keeping his forces alive than keeping us prisoner. At this point, I am still holding up my end of the deal, and it is necessary for freedom. Hopefully, resisting him will weaken him, and he will have to retreat. To make sure he does, we will follow the planetary scourge wave straight to him, and I will know where he is." Ezio ticked off, slowly in a low whisper under his breathe.

"Exactly…"

**Present day…**

"Something went wrong in the planetary scourge?" Anvil asked, watching the dragon's back.

"He said he could feel multiple people trying to hold it back. And that he could feel them one by one flicker out of existence. Not only that, but he could feel all the human lives he snuffed out; feel their energy flow into him. It did indeed make him strong, and I think Malefor will come to regret that, but Ezio has paid the price." Kali said.

"I can do nothing for him. His grief will be too great. So we are off to finish Malefor?"

"Ezio believes that it will be Spyro who finishes him, not himself. But personally, I have never ever seen a dragon as strong as him. I bet you if he put enough power into it he could turn the planet backwards." Kali whispered, "Terrador is going to head towards Spyro, he has knowledge of the dragons priorities. Terrador thinks he will contact the US president. Hunter will take care of the nighthawks, I know him. And the two moles, Mole-Yare, and Mason have vast knowledge that they can pass onto the research department of our allies. What about you?"

"I shall seek out others of our kind for assistance. There are bound to be some out there that can help." Anvil said, banking away. The others were beginning to head off in their own direction. Kali sped up to Ezio, brushing his wing with hers.

"You holding up ok?"

"I'll be fine…" She felt sorrow for Ezio, but it was strangely subdued. Kali had realized a while back why. She hadn't known anyone that had died.

* * *

"Spyro, thank god. My name is Lenny Kravits, no relation to the singer. The president appointed me chief envoy to the dragons." Spyro arched an eyebrow at the strange man. Lenny shift his feet uncomfortably.

"I would like to speak to your president Lenny." Spyro said calmly.

"I'm sorry Spyro, but he's in a meet – hey! Where do you think you're going? Hey! Stop!"

Spyro wasn't listening as he burst through the glazed glass doors. Several men drew they're weapons, and one actually fired. The bullet ricocheted off the convexity shield Spyro put up on instinct and it shot through the roof."

"Get this monster out of our sight, and hold him till – "

"That's enough Carl!" The man at the head of the table said, "He is innocent!"

"Innocent my ass." The man murmured as he half lowered himself into his seat.

"Mr. President?" Spyro addressed the man at the end of the table.

"Please, Spyro, you are a guest in the United States and on earth, call me John, that's my real name."

"I – wait, John? That's an odd name…"

"So is Spyro." Spyro gapped at that and then shook his head violently.

"John, I need your help. I was afraid I might not speak to you, so I came busting in here."

"Well go on then friend."

"There is much you need to learn about our culture Mr. President. I am not your friend, not yet, but I am your ally. Second off, it is you who are the guests here, not me. My race came forty thousand years before your time. Third off, I hope you're planning a retaliatory strike." Spyro said. The president seemed slightly unnerved by his brevity and forwardness.

"We are indeed, but we have no knowledge of this foe."

"Then I can tell you right now, the one who launched this attack is not your enemy. Powerful though the attack might be, it was not worldwide, it was only enough to reach a mutual enemy. Whoever this creature was knew that Alpha Squad would try and prevent this event from causing any damage at all." Spyro said, approaching the table and sitting on his haunches.

"And what is the damage, we don't even know that. When we emerged from the bunker, all we could see was the same scene as before." One of the joint chiefs stated, standing up.

"Alpha squad was able to prevent any of the energy waves from hitting either of the America's mainland. No damage too these two continents, except in extreme areas. San Francisco has suffered moderate damage, as well as Los Angeles and most of the west coast. Alaska has suffered severe damage, as well as Russia. Tokyo has been obliterated from the reports I got from my wing mates. All rubble, and Japan overall has suffered severe damage. China will have difficulty as well. South America will have suffered considerable damage because of its low income and poor structures." Spyro said to the continuously paler group in front of him.

"What about Hawaii? And Haiti? All the south pacific islands? Oh my god, what happened to Austrailia?" One of the aids jumped up.

"Bill! Wait!" The man did not stop, he kept running.

"My wife is in Sydney!" He yelled back before disappearing down the steps at the end of the hall. Spyro turned back to the group, his face incredibly white, the dust still covering him blending in with his scales.

"We believe that the person responsible for this act contacted us before it was committed, to warn us." Spyro said, looking wary. There was a general outcry and even the president jumped up.

"What did they want?" Carl said, shouting above the others.

"For us to find cover."

"No no, what kind of items did he want, why did he threaten us?"

"It wasn't a ransom!" Spyro said, backing away, "One of my wings under my command made contact with him. We believe them to have a connection! I simply think he did not want to do it, but he had no choice!"

"NO CHOICE!" Carl absolutely dived towards Spyro this time, and Spyro did the only thing he could, he fought back.

The fight was over before it even started. There was a flash of purple that was Spyro's scales, and then carl was lying face down with a lump on his head, and again every gun was pointed at Spyro, whom had a convexity shield around himself.

"ENOUGH!" The president shouted, jumping up, "Everyone WEAPONS SAFE! Someone get this man out of here, revive him, find him some Tylenol, and then tell him he's fired! And anyone whom attacks these creatures will be arrested on the spot!"

Most of them settled down, though a few kept their weapons on the table.

"I guess that's the best I'm going to get. Spyro, why did you not reveal yourself sooner?"

"Because of what just happened. We didn't mean for it to come out like this, but consider the circumstances. We stop a global holocaust from even happening right under your noses, and save billions of lives. Even so, we believe the casualties to be in excess of twenty percent of the world's population. And don't forget, we lost lives too. I personally lost five very close friends, and nearly lost my mate. We tried our best, but by the time we got to the scene it had already started, we knew it would have been like that either way, so we warned you first. Luckily it worked out so well."

"Losing one point two billion people isn't what I call lucky. But you're right, we need your help. And I assume that because you came back, you need ours." The president said.

"Indeed, we have a very powerful military, but not powerful enough. As we speak, my forces are rallying our military might to strike out against this enemy. My wingman, Nova, the one who made first contact, is currently searching for the perpetrator. I believe he should pay for his crimes, but not die for them. If my theory is correct, it was not intentional. If It was, then we all would be dead." Spyro addressed the room.

"I need everything, every man and vehicle at your disposal for this fight. It will be big and nasty, with many casualties on both sides, but it can be won if we work together. And it is also unavoidable."

Silence followed these words.

"I can tell I'm gonna have a lot of grey hair before this is over. Your asking for a lot Spyro." The president said.

"I realize that. But I have told you everything you need to know, it's your call now."

"We were going to launch a counter-attack anyways Mr. President, this is only needed Intel. We could gain to learn a lot from them, and they seem to have enough to give our forces a significantly added punch. I say we go for it."

The president looked around at his advisors to see if they had anything else to say. They were all extremely pale, but they had determined looks on their faces.

"Never wake a sleeping giant, men. We are at war…"


	9. Chapter 9

Jeeves raced through the corridor, his speed belaying his age and human figure. It was difficult to get through the mass of rubble, but the former butler, and dragon, jumped nimbly over the busted concrete, using some tricks he had learned from the panthers of nighthawk squadron. Presently, he knocked a couple of Japanese survivors aside as he rushed past. He was going so fast that he had zero warning when Blaze turned the corner and darted in the other direction. The two collided head on, Jeeves bouncing backwards, and Blaze simply looking down in surprise.

"Jeeves! I haven't seen you in – "

"Yes, yes, Blaze, where is Spyro?" Jeeves asked hurriedly.

"He's in the command center with – hey, hang on! Jeeves!" The man wasn't listening. By the time Jeeves even registered that Blaze had called his name, he had run halfway to the command center. Finally, Jeeves burst through the double doors of the former City Hall. The upper half had broken off in the initial assault, but it was now he firmest building in the city, and it's bottom floors served as an excellent coordination point. Spyro was in the entrance hall, talking to an enormous earth dragon. Jeeves didn't even spare the creature a glance as he marched up to Spyro.

"Jeeves! Good, how are you doing? I was hoping I could contact you about Ezio." Spyro said, smiling. However his smile faded, as he looked Jeeves in the eyes.

"Yes. I'd like to talk to you about Ezio as well. However, I just got the first look at that recon photo of that dragon. What have you done?" Jeeves said, waving his arms about and shouting like a lunatic.

"Wait, hang on, I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine. Ezio, this is the former Earth Guardian, Terrador. Terrador, this is Jeeves, a personal friend of that extraordinary human I was telling you about." Spyro said, turning to the massive earth dragon. Even the guardian himself was struggling with something. It was then Jeeves finally registered Terrador.

"Oh jeezus. Um, later Terrador. Spyro, you know of that purple dragon you got a recon photo of? Did he not seem familiar to you?" Jeeves was positively going ballistic now.

"Of course, but then it's to be expected, he's a purple dragon – "

"He WAS Ezio!" Jeeves shouted, "I recognized him the moment I saw the picture! His face might have changed, but not his eyes! There just strangely deep with emotion."

Spyro's eyes went wide with this. He snapped around to look at Terrador. The massive dragon opened his mouth a couple of times, then just simply cleared his throat and nodded.

"It's difficult, the curse still acts on us to a certain degree."

"It always will. I expect it will only truly be gone when it's caster is dead." Jeeves said, looking up at the guardian, "The name is Sprite, mighty Malefor…"

"Sprite, I recognize that name. Smaug is your successor, is he not?"

"That he is."

"When I found out about the apparent connection between Nova and the dragon, I sent Nova out to look for him. She was told to bring him back alive if possible." Spyro said.

"You know she won't abide by that, not when so much has happened…"

"Agreed. This situation is somewhat similar to when she lost concurrent skies. She went after Malefor alone. Now she's basically doing it again. Ezio was trained by Malefor himself. Nova will have a tough time with him. I gotta find her, stop her." A small burst of wind disturbed Jeeves hair, and a glowing orb shot past his head.

"Spyro! Whoa now buddy, we need you here. There are millions of people who need help in the recovery effort."

"Sparx is right Spyro. We need you here. Ezio can take care of himself, and now that he's free of Malefor's grasp, he won't have to fight Nova." Terrador said down to the legendary dragon.

"But what about Nova?"

"She'll come to her senses. Ezio will make sure of that…"

The two dragons raced across the scorching desert. Ezio had been in hot places before, but this was almost unbearable. The moon was shining bright in the sky, casting the two creatures into eerie shadow, the light glowing as it touched upon their skin. The two had been running for days now, because of the United States military presence in the last few years had increased, and the place was blanketed with a defense radar and SAM network. Before him, Ezio could see the radar coverage of the different sites. He gave them a wide berth.

How could it be so hot at midnight?

Quite suddenly, the sky behind them lit up, splaying the ground in an almost twilight like quality. Ezio for nearly a quarter of an hour thought it was the sun till he realized that the shadows, his shadow, were moving too fast for it to be the sun. It wasn't. Before Ezio could turn around though to investigate it, he felt something hit him square in the center of the back and nearly break it as he was flung forwards. Only one thing could nearly end his life so quickly and easily.

"Nova…" Ezio said as he did a sort of pirouette in midair, spinning around to face the dragoness. The female said nothing, and she charged again, sheathed in golden light, as if she were a righteous lance, hurled from on high. This time it was Kali to make the first shot. Nova plowed into the ground as Kali landed, beginning to circle around the dragoness as she got to her feet.

"Kali, don't, I will deal with her." Ezio said quietly. Kali nodded silently, gave him a soft growl as a warning, and then turned and simply just melted into the sand as she activated her shadow power. This time, Nova was struggling to rise.

"Are you ok Nova?" Ezio asked, approaching the dragoness.

"Deal with me? Will you at least make it quick then? I'd like it in the head." Nova said, again collapsing. Ezio noticed the four tiny smoking holes in Nova's foreleg, and realized that Kali had injected enough poison to incapacitate Nova temporarily.

"I'm not going to kill you Nova."

"Then you're going to torture me?"

"No, I'm simply going to wait." Ezio said quietly smiling, "I learned a lot while I was under Malefor's control, and one of the biggest things was to wait for the perfect moment."

And then he turned towards the east and sat down, staring unmovingly at the horizon. Nova struggled several times again, trying to overcome the effects of the poison. Finally, just as the morning rays of light appeared on the horizon, she was able to stand up straight and approach the purple creature.

"You are going to pay for your crimes, bastard whelp."

"Sticks and stones, love."

"I'm not your love." Nova said, jumping in front of the dragon.

"Quite the contrary. You grieved for me when I died; you were my friend while I was alive. You even kissed me once, Nova. Do you remember that?" Ezio said, smiling.

"The only thing I remember is the deaths of friends you and your master have caused." A shadow crossed over the dragons face.

"He is no master of mine. I am my own master."

"Bullshit! Are you telling me the global holocaust was of your own free will? You caused the deaths of five of my friends, one of them my mate! Not only that, but you whipped out an entire country! Now pay for it!" And with that, she jumped upon Ezio, thinking of nothing but ripping her claws through his flesh. Ezio had other ideas though as they circled around each other, Nova's body blurring as she passed Ezio. It suddenly occurred to him exactly how pissed the dragoness was.

Ezio however had other ideas. The second time she lunged at him in her blind rage, Ezio took his tail spade and forced it into the center of the female's as she passed, and then planted his feet, twisting hard. The twist threw the dragoness off her feet, and as she fell, she pulled Ezio down on top of her. Nova struggled a bit then realized what just happened.

"That time, Nova, I wasn't holding back. I actually had to use a bit of dragon time." Ezio said, grinning at Nova's gapping mouth and dumbstruck face.

"Ezio…"

Ezio knew that it would probably happen, and was prepared for it, but he made no move to stop the vicious punch to the face when Nova recovered from her initial shock. Ezio could feel all the beautiful force put into it to. He also felt the hardened bone in his check fracture. Holding his paw up to his face and forcing life into it to speed up the healing process, he backed off.

"Damn, Nova! That had Frost written all over that one!"

"Yeah, I've learned a couple of tricks. Damn you Ezio! Blast you! What the hell were you thinking?"

"Nova, I was thinking clearly for once."

"You killed three members of Alpha squadron! And two of our friends! One was set up to be Blazes mate, and the other was…"

Ezio looked like he had a hard time controlling himself.

"Nova, please."

"It's gonna be a long way if you want forgiveness from me, Ez!"

"Well I forgive him!" It was Kali, returning as soon as she stopped seeing elemental blasts.

"Oh that's real rich, coming from a former shadow force lieutenant. I assume she's with you Ezio, and not a tale from Malefor?"

"Yeah. Kali, this is my friend, Nova. Nova, Kali, she helped a great deal trying to get me out of there." Ezio said quietly. It was an almost frigid point in time as the two females stared each other down. Ezio would have bust out laughing if he hadn't known what the other was thinking.

"So what're you going to do about me then, Nova?" Ezio said, almost timidly.

"I've half a mind to kill you right here. But…"

"Something's holding you back?"

Nova seemed to struggle with herself, and then turned her back to the now rising sun, spreading her wings.

"It's not my place. I'll take you to Spyro, and we will discuss this in detail. If you attempt to run, either of you, then it will become my place, got it?"

"You need not worry about us."

She only took off, using a burst of light to rocket herself forwards to cruising speed.

"Boy Ez, you really know how to pick them. I'm considered deranged, and she's got to be bloodthirsty at best." Kali said, smiling to herself. The two took off in pursuit of Nova.

"Then you haven't met Frost yet, hehe."

"Can't we ever get a break?" The Ice Guardian asked.

"No." Came the forward cold reply.

"I mean seriously though. Go figure the best combat team in the world though gets monsters of Armageddon like this. I can't wait till I can have some easier assignments." Frost voiced over the crash of the waves against the destroyers hull. Due to the radical events as of late, there had been a mass exodus from any major city. Because of this, third world countries were having a massive influx of residents. Also, for protection, most transports, which were often packed to the brim with thousands of residents, had military escorts. Currently, Frost and Cynder were making a round of inspection on the military vessels.

"I thought you liked a challenge Frost?" Cynder said smiling to herself.

"Yeah, but I also like winning. Trust me Cynder, a hard head like me doesn't lose. They win, or die." Frost growled. Cynder shivered at her friends ominous words. Quite suddenly, the small radio headset Cynder had looped around her horn buzzed off, the destroyer captain's voice speaking into the side of her head.

"Cynder, we just got word from the USS America, she's picking up three unknowns inbound from the mainland, not squawking."

"Roger that captain, tell the America were on our way."

"Blaze?" No answer. Of course, there was never an answer from him anymore. Spyro stepped further into the dark room, the floor swaying ever so slightly with the sea. He could just barely make out he dark orange silhouette and the vividly pink hair.

"Blaze, come on man, I need you." Still no answer, "Are you even awake, dragon? Come on you lazy lump!" Spyro pocked Blaze hard in the back of the head, and the orange dragon, suddenly and inexplicably pushed over the edge, flipped and twisted simultaneously in mid air, swinging at Spyro with all his might.

"Leave me alone!"

"Oye you crazy bastard! Don't make me put you under!" Spyro said, sidestepping quickly and punching back, hitting Blaze square in the eye. The dragon felt the blow, but went even further, lighting the place up with a jet of white hot flame. Spyro retaliated with his own, and before the purple dragon knew it, the two were looked in a battle of endurance, trying to overpower the other as both of them wore down. Finally, Blaze could hold his no longer, and it died down enough that Spyros dragonfire attack hit him head on, burning him slightly with first and second degree burns along the full front of his body. Just after Spyro's flames passed over Blaze. Spyro charged, hitting the dragon full force in the chin.

He felt the bone crack solidly under his closed fist.

"Enough Blaze!" Spyro said, as the fire guardian held his jaw, blood running freely from his mouth, "Listen you dumbass, I know you miss Kura, honestly I miss her too, she brought out the best in you. But your being such a dumbass about it! Look at you, it consumes you! All you do is mope and moan and mourn, and you get nothing accomplished. And when someone tries to cheer you up, you spit in their face! I honestly think Kura would be disappointed in you! Now then, you are relieved of duty as Fire Guardian, pending further orders, on the basis you are emotionally unstable! Am I clear?"

Spyro hated doing that, but he had no choice. He was Blazes commander, and it was more for Blazes safety than anything else. Spyro watched as several emotions ran through the dragon, going from his rage and anger at Spyro, to his despair at Spyro's words, and now, there was an empty shell in front of him, a defeated dragon. Blaze nodded his head slowly to show that he understood. Spyro turned on his heel and walked towards the doorway to the room, pausing at the threshold.

"I came down here to tell you that Nova's on her way back with two contacts, which one of them are likely to be Ezio. Honestly dude, I know you miss her, and I know what it's like to lose someone you lost, but you can't sit and mourn forever, you must move on. I don't think Kura would have wanted someone to be reclusive and miserable all their lives…"

Ezio knew he had been this nervous before at some point in his life, but he couldn't really remember when. He knew Nova, whom had given him a stone cold silence all the way home, which had taken the better part of a week, was somewhat of a Spitfire, but if her reaction was any indication of how the rest of the squad would react, then he was in for one hell of a beating.

And he could almost feel the crosshairs from that F-35C trained on the back of his head…

"Unknown one, this is America tower, don't try ay fishy business, and you'll make it through this alive. So you had better follow my exact orders."

"I'm all ears America." Down below Ezio, he could see the massive bulk of the new high tech CVN-67 carrier, codenamed USS America. In the control tower, some random bloke with a slightly southern accent was guiding him in. Ezio had never landed on an aircraft carrier before.

"Set glideslope to fifteen degrees, speed one hundred to one hundred twenty miles per hour, extend everything."

"Roger, glide slope at fifteen degrees."

"On my mark, full reverse thrust ad flair for touchdown, you should come down on top of some wires at the end of the runway, hit those and they will decelerate you rapidly, make sure to lock your legs." Ezio knew why they were doing this. When his adventures had first started, the dragons had been about six or seven feet tall. Now each one of the males stood at least twelve feet tall, having gone through about a year and a half of constant traveling and survival, they were now approaching fully grown size. Blaze himself was over fourteen feet tall, his vivid orange on the flight deck standing out in sharp contrast to his surroundings. The females had grown as well, Frost being the tallest at over ten feet. While flying now, they had the characteristics of a small private plane.

"Roger that, claws down tower, prepped for landing." Ezio spoke over the coms unit Nova had given him wordlessly on the trip home. Despite her cold attitude towards him, she had taken to Kali quite nicely, and the two had often shared long talks on the flight home. Nova had always gotten annoyed whenever he tried to talk to Kali.

"Two lights unknown one…"

"Names Ezio tower. You can call me Ez though." He said rather sharpish over the coms system. He was tired of people treating him like the enemy, though he wasn't really surprised.

"I say again unknown one, two lights! And don't cut over me! Flare now one, flare, flare!"

Ezio pulled up just in time, else he would have otherwise hit the deck, and grabbed the very last cable with his hind feet. The sudden lack of airspeed made him stall, and he fell flat on his face. Kali landed smoothly next to him.

"Smooth one, Ez."

"Quiet you." Ezio whispered back as he repaired the damage with his life element. He had found out on the trip back that it worked well at repairing small dents and scrapes, and even broken bones, though it drained him of energy quickly.

"Ezio!" The purple dragon spun around to come face to face with Spyro, though he knew Spyro was keeping his distance for safety measure.

There was no warning for Ezio. Spyro launched himself forwards at the purple dragon, and to Ezio's great surprise, so did Cynder. Ezio reacted instinctively, throwing up a week shield.

It of course was gone nearly instantly, but with the two vs. one setup, Ezio still had time to retaliate. He kept blocking their attacks, and soon found himself tiring from constant motions. It was unlike most fights he had been in though, it was relaxed yet tense at the same time, and Ezio wondered if the two were wearing him down to try and deliver a final crushing blow. Finally, at the same time, Spyro surged forwards; delivering a series of violent blows with a rapid pace, and Cynder fell back, so that Spyro could have his space and fight. Finally, Ezio slowed down just slightly that he knew in the next move, Spyro could reach him…

The blow never came. Spyro stood there panting, having completed his last series of rapid moves. Ezio could feel his muscles trembling. He felt now like he hadn't slept in days. Finally, Spyro took a deep breath then steadied himself, standing up straight.

"Welcome back, Ez." Spyro said smiling, whipping his paw out in front. It was ablaze in fire energy. Ezio also steadied himself and stood up straight, clasping Spyro's paw with his own and shielding it in light.

"A test, Spyro?"

"If you were under Malefor's control, you would have just had the chance to kill me there." Spyro said, smiling, "It'll be just like old times Ez. Were a couple of shooting stars that'll never be stopped."

"Oye! Let me go!" Kali yelled from the corner, whom was being held back by both Frost and Nova.

"Guys, she's with me!" Ezio said, rushing up, "Let her go, she's alright!"

Blaze took that opportunity to tap Ezio on the shoulder. The purple dragon turned to see a very torn up dragon.

"Dude, Blaze, who clocked you that well?" Ezio said, reaching up and forcing his life energy into the fire dragon. The shining bruised eye was healed instantly, and Ezio hard several sharp clicks as the jaw went back into place and sealed itself. Blaze tried to struggle away, but when it was all done, he felt his jaw line where the break had been, and then whipped away the dried blood. He then took the time to contemplate Ezio, whom stared back at him. It was several tense moments as Blaze opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to decide what to do.

Ezio saw the punch coming, and knew that it hurt, but it wasn't fast enough to cause permanent harm. He let it hit full force. Even though it wasn't lethal, the punch still sent him sprawling to the ground.

"Guess I deserved that." Ezio said, rubbing his chin.

"You DESERVE a lot more. You DESERVE half the punishment and Malefor the other half. Even if you were under his control, you could have been smarter about the whole ordeal. And now, because of YOU, SHE'S dead!" Blaze said, advancing on him, "In fact, if it weren't for HER, I wouldn't forgive YOU in the first place! Ad you would now lye there dead. But I don't believe that she would have wanted me to live a life of revenge and then remorse. So you HER, and not ME. Got it?"

"Yeah. And Blaze, even though I don't know who SHE is, I do feel sorry."

"I don't need YOUR pity. I need a goal." Blaze said, sitting down and rubbing his paw across his face.

"Which would be?" Cynder asked. The two turned to find the entire group watching them with bated breath.

"The war." Blaze said, "I am a guardian, and my first and foremost task is to protect the innocent. Thus the war. However when this war is over, a guardian I am no more."

"Great. Freeze butt! Hands off, or I'll rip your arms from your sockets!" Kali said to Frsot behind her, whom was holding Kali in an arm lock.

"Go ahead and make something happen then !" Frost screamed as she was flipped head over heels, right over even Kali, and landing on her stomach, with Kali lying on her back on top of Frost.

"Wanna make something happen girl? Go ahead." Kali smirked from the top.

"And yet you didn't succeed in anything emo girl, I still got you pinned."

"You've got me pinned? You had better walk me through that one."

"Can you move?" Kali squirmed and tried for a bit, but to no avail.

"No."

"I rest my case." Nova walked up to Spyro and whispered close to his head.

"3, release her, she's fine. She could have attacked Nova or Ezio at any point on their trip home." Frost reluctantly slackened her grip, and Kali rolled off her. Frost hopped to her feet, and faced Kali.

"Yes sir, but if I get a whiff, even a snicker out of you, I'll go back to a body bind." Kali stared Frost down. It was then that a realization slammed full force into Ezio.

"Oh bring it bi – "

"Kali!" Ezio said. The female turned irately on him.

"What, Ez?"

"Who's your mother?" Ezio asked, almost laughing at himself.

"I – what?" Kali said, arching and eyebrow and cocking her head to the side slightly.

"I just realize, I know who your father is, but who's your mother?" Ezio said, nearly going hysterical now.

"How should I know? I never met her! All I know is that she lived a long time ago."

"What are you getting at Ezio?" Nova asked.

"Well take a look! Doesn't Kali look like someone familiar? Why didn't I see it before?" Ezio said.

"Kali, who is your father?" Blaze asked.

Kali looked form Blaze to Ezio and then to Nova, "Smaug is my father, you knew that Ezio! And so did you Nova, why's it such a big deal?" But now Cynder had gasped covering her mouth, and Spyro's had practically dropped to the ground. Frost walked up to Kali, and placed her paw on the dragoness's shoulder, turning the shadow dragoness to face her. In fact, it almost looked like a mirror image. Besides the colors, Kali's spikes, her incredible body, and her sleek long snout and head looked strikingly simaliar to the dragoness standing opposite her…

"Oh no way!" Blaze shouted, and at the exact same time, both Kali and Frost shouted out the phrase…

"Holy shit!"


	10. Chapter 10

It had been so long since Ezio had seen the stars this clearly. In fact, the last he could remember when he had seen this many was when he was three. His family had gone o a camping trip to uper new york, and there was some sort of natural phenominon making the sky unusually bright and clear.

His mother had still been alive back then...

He had things he would have asked her. Like how he should lead the people whom looked up to him now, as a purple dragon. Like Blaze, whom despite the fact he was pissed at Ezio, still held the former human in high regard. Or how to handle the people whom despised him cause of the actions he had very little choice in. Like Frost, whom hated Ezio in every aspect of the word. Or how to handle Frost's daughter, Kali, whom was now in a detention cell, trying to break free from Malefor's curse and her cell at the same time. Ezio hadn't realized just how powerful her curse was till he found out the relation between Frost and Kali. It was very complicated...

"You got a lot of explaining to do Frost." Ezio said quietly to the Ice dragoness.

"Kinda like you..."

"I've already done my share. Go on Frost..."

It seemed tough to her, but what really shocked Ezio was the fear he saw flicker in the dragoness's eyes, "During the second war, many many people died or were captured in the first assault. I was targeted simply because of whom my mate was, and my relation to the Ice Guardian, Cyril."

"Malefor had the impression I knew of the Guardians secrets and tactics. What he wanted was a secret way into Warfang, to capture it from the inside. I had no idea where it was. Yes I knew such a path existed, but it was a closely guarded secret."

Ezio wait ed fr a bit, then prompted for her to continue, "And your mate?"

"His name was Dante. Yes THE Dante, the one whom Dante's Freezer was named after. A warlord when I first met him, he fell madly in love with my body and cunning with my element. I was young then, naive and inexperienced. I saw his lust for me as love, he was good at disguising it. Cyril warned me when I first told him Dante had asked me to become his life-mate. I never listened, and thus accepted."

"At first, it was absolute bliss, nothing like I had ever felt in my entire life. Then Malefor visited Dante's Freezer, claiming it as his own. Dante was power hungry, hence his love of me as a guardians daughter, not his love for me as a dragoness. Thus, when Malefor told Dante he must leeve, Dante tried to persuade Malefor to take me and leave his nation alone for good. Malefor then accepted, threw me in prison and burned the place to the ground. Dante died in the fighting."

"It was enough to be thrown in prison because of the actions and betrayal of the one I loved. But it was another thing when Malefor found out my heritage. The torture was light at first, and I resisted, but it eventually got worse and worse. I have never known pain like that since, it was exquisitely fine tuned, enough to push me to the brink of death each day. I faded in and out of consciousness constantly. At some point I was moved from Dante's freezer to Cynder's old lair. I never knew when I was moved."

"After every days torture was complete, I was of little value to Malefor. My body was nothing to him. However, it seemed Smaug found it quite appealing. I um, I lost my virginity after my move to Cynder's lair. I laid many eggs, very few of which were fertile. Kali's must have been the only one of the fertile ones that survived."

It was suddenly quite clear to Ezio exactly why Frost was so cold. He had a hard time continuing, "I'm sorry, but it still doesn't explain how your both the same age."

"A perversion of Malefor's. Being my daughter, Kali could have gained my trust much easier than you could have. I think you were just the bait Ezio, I don't think Malefor expected us all to survive. Or for you to become so powerful. I think you were supposed to kill me, and then she would finish the rest off by providing intel to the Dark Master. She doesn't like it, but she didn't have much of a choice."

"I know of the spell he used, putting her egg into stasis. He waited for almost fifty thousand years, he knew when and where we'd come out of that portal. He knew we would have to befriend humans if we were to survive. He had everything he needed to know. So he waited. And waited. And finally, he let Kali go, then as soon as she was hatched, started to hone her for war."

And even without the Soap opera like life Ezio led, he had one last, one very big question...

What would he do with this spectacular dragoness that lay with her back to him on the flight deck, only a foot away. Nova had been distant with him ever since things had calmed down. The dragoness was different than when he had first met her. Ezio had gotten the full story from Spyro, whom besides Cynder, was he only one whom would talk to him like a normal person would.

Ezio could understand why she was grieving right now. Out of them all, she was the only one to have experienced a normal life and family. To have a place to call home and to experience true love. From what Ezio could tell of Nova's previous mate, Apollo, spyro had told him. The male came off different to Ezio. He seemed like he had loved Nova for the surprises she threw at him, like he never truly understood her.

Ezio felt like he understood Nova too some degree. And she had attracted him while he was a human. But what bothered him is how much of what HAD attracted him had died since then. It had only been about three months since that time, but even still, the dragoness seemed distant, alien and strange.

Presently, the dragoness rolled over, and in doing so lay her pw right on top of his. Ezio froze and even held his breath. After a while, she murmured something along the lines of "Mercie". It had a slightly french accent.

"No, she's not strange." Ezio murmured to himself, "Well, she is strange, and distant, but not alien. She's just covered up that former self with her burdens. That part of her I love is still in there, it's just repressed, forgotten for the moment."

Nova hummed in contentment before drifting further into sleep...

WHUMP

"I'm telling you, it won't hold forever. She's gonna break through at some point."

WHUMP

"Cut it out, you'll hurt yourself!"

WHUMP

"You think I – owch – have a choice, MOM?"

WHUMP

"Why can't you just accept that fact, Kali?"

WHUMP

"Cause I expected my mom to be as old as Smaug!"

WHUMP

"Hehe, welcome to Malefor's world, Kali dear. Next stop, insanity."

WHUMP

"I think I've already reach insanity! I think my next stop is hell!"

"Isn't it always?"

In all honesty, Frost had disliked the situation just as much as Kali had. She was put in a cell which had been padded with ld matresses, a kinda phsyc ward. Kali wasn't mentally crazy, and she was aware the curse was making her do this, try to break through the door. Well, try to break through when the others were outside, and Kali knew it. Frost knew from the camera installed inside the room that when no one was outside her door, Kali turned against herself, the curse pushing her to hurt anything within reach. Being the medic Frost had to treat her self inflicted wounds daily. That was one thing Frost hated to do.

"Ready guys?" Frost said to Beam and Photon, whom had been able to find them incredibly quickly. They were now on round the clock guard duty on Kali's prison cell.

"Aye. Ready to go down the rabbit hole Alice?"

"Beam, I was born down the hole. On my mark!" Frost got a runi9ng star, and lowered her shoulder ten feet from the door, just before yelling, "NOW!"

With inhuman speed, Photon threw the door open. Kali tried to jump out, but Frost, already moving, slammed into her gut, and pinned her against the wall with a foreleg. Frost heard the door slam closed behind her. Kali kicked her in the gut, but Frost held, injecting a paralyzing serum into Kali's bloodstream.

She was just about to start on Kali's self inflicted injuries when she heard a stomping of feet on the floor outside. Blaze suddenly burst through the doors, sending Beam and Photon flying inside, since they had tried to bar his way.

"Frost! Egg, now!" Blaze wheezed, keeling over with exhaustion. He must have dashed the entire three miles to the America from the medical frigate that held the egg.

"Oh, come on!" Frost said, dashing past. Blaze groaned, picked himself up and followed quickly.

"It's been happening for five minutes now, loud squeaks and large cracks have been forming."

"Quickly, Blaze."

It was a tense five minutes as they rushed to the back of the fleet, which now consisted of nothing but warships and support craft. It's numbers grew by the hundreds every day as the humans amassed their forces for the planned assault.

"Almost... there..." Frost wheezed after another five minutes of running. Finally, she burst through the double doors to the infirmary, running straight to the back past all the injured or sick. At the very back was the egg Eclipse had laid, it's spiderweb cracks now marking the shell. The yellow markings were slightly glowing with magic.

"Status?" She asked one of the medical staff off to the side.

"Stable, but it's early according to you."

"Yeah, by about nine months. The egg was conceived while she was tired and injured, thats probably why." There was a rushed padding of feet, and Frost turned to find Ezio, Spyro and Cynder running down the ward.

"Oh, come on, this isn't a bloody convention! Back, all of you, give me some space it's hot enough as it is already!" She pushed backwards on Spyro and Ezio as they came to a halt in front fo her.

"How much longer?"

"Give it ten minutes it'll be out then."

It took nearly five hours for Frost to emerge from a back room, carrying a bundle of blankets. They were unmoving. Frost motioned for them to be quiet as she approached. Ezio at the head of the pack of adults, looked down to find the smallest dragon he had ever seen. The head was unusually large for the body, the legs short and pudgy, and the wings, while large for the creatures size, were very thin, and almost completely translucent. The tiny babe was completely yellow except for a random smattering of black speckles, which reminded Ezio a lot of freckles. The hatchling could have fit easily in the palm of his hand.

"Guys, say hello to little Thundra."

"Eclipse and Thunders girl." Cynder said quietly, "Born an orphan."

"Man, we need a normal life. Frost, what are we gonna do with her? She needs someone to watch her and feed her." Spyro said quietly.

"I'll do it." Frost piped up instantly, "I was the first one she saw. I'll raise her."

"Why would you though? Frost, no offence, but your not the most loving type." Blaze said. He was expecting a slap over the head, but was surprised when she smiled.

"I can be compassionate when I want to. It's just you and your smart alack mouth that gets you into trouble." Frost teased back, "The only issue is raising her in the middle of a war. For the first eighteen months she'll need someone constantly with her, because she'll need feeding every two hours. Some of the staff will have to do it."

"Trusting a dragons life to a human?" Nova said quietly.

"It's one of the better ways to improve relations. Alright Frost, can you set it up?" Spyro asked. Frost nodded quickly. Spyro and Cynder left then, being called away by the captain announcing a group of ships arriving. Blaze moved up next to Frost, looking down at the child.

"Awe, lookit her, she's so tiny." He said, sticking his claw in and letting the hatchling wrap it's tiny fingers around it, "How heavy?"

"Five pounds, she must have broken a record. That's got to be the smallest dragon baby ever born to survive." Frost said quietly.

"What, five pounds? A human baby is normally what, eight pounds?" Ezio said, still watching the tiny dragon snooze on.

"A normal dragon baby weighs twenty-five pounds or up Ez. She's tiny by dragon standards. I hope there's no defects, she was born so early." Frost said, walking now towards a small cardboard box lined with pillows and blankets. The box was easily huge for the baby, but Ezio knew it would grow explosively.

Ezi's headset radio crackled to life. All the dragons were wearing them now non-stop, in case something happened, so they could co-ordinate a response quickly.

"He Ez, it's Cynder. Spyro wants you in the air now, it would seem this new fleet is Russian, but thats not what concerns him. They have dragons with them as well." Her voice was somewhat anxious, "One more thing. There's a purple one among them."

Ezio stopped cold, "What?"

"I said, COME ON!"

"On my way lieutenant."

It didn't take long. A quick run through the ship, and about two minutes later he burst onto the now darkened deck, waves pounding against the frigate and the spray of the sea hitting his face. He lept into the air, and looked wildly around trying to find the new group. It didn't take long to spot the iridescent hide of the dragon Cynder was talking about.

"Brilliant. Honestly, how many purple dragons are there?"

One shot with his light element, and he was at Spyro's side instantly, hovering in place.

"We don't know their powers, so stay close, and neutral." Spyro said quietly back to him. The dragon motioned down to the lead ship below them, an aircraft carrier with a sloping launch deck. The dragon landed so close, he almost blinded Ezio with his hide. But it wasn't the "purple" dragon that held his attention, but his wingman, whos eyes were very familiar.

"Hehehe, be in your bonnet, Ezio? And where be ye fine female friend Nova? She hasn't left us now, has she? Powers the likes of which I've never seen come from her."

"Bane?" Ezio said, realization dawning on him. He let escape a pent up breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.

"The very same! I forgot how nice being a dragon was. Anywho, let me introduce the keeper of the modern lands, the convexity dragon Zeus!" And now Ezio knew whom he was talking too. This dragon was more of an enforcer, himself being the strongest dragon of the current age. His body was smooth, devoid of any spines or even a tail spade, the only thing being two very straight horns protruding from his head. His hide changed color ever so slightly. His wings where odd in that they were entirely membrane, there being only a single rod of cartilage crossing through the center, which connected to the shoulder.

"I heard about this last stand against Malefor." He said in an empirical voice, projecting the sound out above the pounding of the waves, "Thank-you for getting the forces ready for me Spyro. You there, female, ensign, what are the status of the cities' forces?"

Cynder nearly pounced on him, but Ezio was able to stand on her tail without him seeing. Spyro spoke from the front, cautiously choosing his words.

"Excuse me if I'm mistaken, Zeus, but this undertaking was my plan, not yours, so it'll be me whom leads the attack. I wouldn't trust my forces in anyone else's claws anyways." Spyro said slowly, his brow furrowed. Zeus frowned at him.

"You are mistaken, young Spyro. It is I who is the more powerful dragon here, not you."

"YOUNG!"

"Hush, Cynder. Zeus, I do not think that age ior power nesecarrily gives a right to lead, but experience. If you know exacly what your doing, then I'll follow your orders, but I will not let my friends be commanded by someone they've ever met."

"I have experience - "

"Whats the layout of the base? What are Malefor's powers? How many units does he have?"

Zeus just stood there like an idiot with his mouth open.

"Thought so." Spyro said quietly, then he turned to the mass of dragons, all of whom were now standing on the deck of the cruiser standing quietly, "All of you will report to the America for sorting and assignments!"

"And you, you will stay out of my way. If you prove yourself on the battlefield, then you will have earned my respect, but not my trust. And never assume this is about power, because it's not. If it were, then we'd all be dead, because Malefor is ten times more skilled at his elements than I am, and a thousand times more than you are." Spyro said, turning to Zeus.

"How could you possibly know? We've never met, and you've never seen me fight." Zeus said, nearly laughing. He thought he had Spyro cornered with that one.

"Because of the shield you threw up to protect yourself. Come on guys."

"Oye! Don't you turn your back on me!"

"Just did."

Ezio heard it and whipped around at the same time the attack hit, but Spyro was way ahead of Zeus. The shield was up before Ezio even had time to think, and it was so strong, Ezio could feel the heat emanating form it as it absorbed Zeus's pitiful beam of convexity.

"I'd normally have you thrown in the brig for that one, but I'm better off not worrying about you. Get out of here Zeus, and thank you for bringing the support." Spyro said, his back still turned to the dragon.

"You can't - "

"Just did."

Yeah, Ezio had known that guy was trouble the moment he had opened his fat mouth, and addressed Cynder as Ensign, or even worse, female. It lmost seemed as if he was not only prejudiced against dragons of lesser age, but even of the female gender. Ezio also got the feeling that he was jealous against Spyro, since Spyro had suddenly appeared with little fanfare, and had taken the role of most powerful dragon alive.

And Ezio didn't care what Spyro said, whether Spyro was being modest or truthful. Spyro used his powers for nothing but justice, and that him made a dragon infinitely more powerful than Malefor.

Besides, there were some things Malefor would never understand.

Ezio looked up at the stars again, wondering whether his mother where watching him now, wondering if she would have approved of the path his odd and incredibly strange life had taken. He wondered if she was watching him now.

A soft glow of light caught his attention, and looking out towards the east, Ezio could see the sun rising. Turning too the dragoness lying beside him, he nuzzled her snout gently. She cooed softly, and opened her eyes slowly.

"Hmm? What, Ez?"

"It's time."

"Awe, such a good dream too." Nova said, sitting up and yawning loudly, a soft roar escaping, "You were in it."

Ezio's ears perked up, "Really? And what role did I play?"

"You played your own role. As I remember, it had no definition, just that it was important. More of a mix of all roles. The enemy, the ally, the lover, the betrayer, the killer. But most importantly, you played as the friend." Nova said, looking out towards the east as well, and watching the sun rise. She closed her eyes, soaking in the rays, and letting it charge her power, sighed contentedly as the day began. Today was the day the invasion began. Today was the day they finally took the fight to the enemy.

Ezio's nerves were on edge, he was watching Nova out of the corner of his eye.

"Nova?"

"Hmm? Oh, cut it out Ez, your making me nervous!"

"Sorry."

"What did you want?"

"Your remember that night on the beach in Warfang?"

"Vividly." It was true, and even though she'd rather die than admit it, not a day went by since then when she didn't think about it.

"I still am, and forever will be your friend. Trust me Nova, I'll always be there for you." Ezio said, turning and smiling to her. She leaned forwards and touched her forehead to his, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply, savoring nothing but his company and the comfort in the fact that she would never be alone.

"Cynder, stay with me. We started this together, and now were gonna end it together." Spyro said quietly, as the portal in front of the America shimmered. It was absolutely massive, big enough for the ships to send the landing force out in front, ready for the Normandy style invasion.

"It won't be world war II all over again Spyro, we have technology and power on our side this time."

"Even still. We fight together..."

"And we die together..."

Spyro looked at her, tears beginning to form. Cynder leaned against him, and the two looked forwards, standing on the very front of the deck to the America, the forward most two creatures in the force. Above them, jets flew in formation and holding paterns, awaiting the time in which they could fly in and deliver their load, and below them, Spyro knew there was a veritable army of subs, most of them soviet, ready with huge warheads made for inland attacking. There were almost ten thousand ships arrayed behind them. Ezio himself had confided in Spyro, declaring he had never even heard of the worlds fleets forming in such large numbers.

"Today, ladies and gentlemen, we begin a new era. Even if we do not succeed, others will follow our example, and they will make sure that tyranny and oppression are squashed for all eternity, and that freedom shall last forevermore. Ladies and Gentlemen of the United Planet Earth, move out." Spyro said over is coms unit, which was linked to the fleet-wide system. Quickly switching it back to his friends and the captains of each country, he sighed heavily.

"Well guys, here goes nothing."

"Ta hell with that! Here goes EVERYTHING!"


	11. Chapter 11

**The Siege of Europa**

Ka-BOOM!

Spyro's eardrums nearly shattered on impact with the sonic wave from the artillery shell that exploded directly off their bow. The blast rained water and fragments of steal down on top of them from the shock. The purple dragon's head was ringing a profound amount, and he could tell be Cynder's motions that her vision was impaired from the blast. The only thing Spyro knew what to do then was to turn and...

"RUN!"

Cynder didn't see it, but she heard it, and turned tail, running towards the aft end of the ship. As Spyro exerted himself, adrenaline kicked in, and his hearing improved. Cynder looked as if she were getting better. Unfortunately, the carrier was through the portal already, it's jets screaming in overhead. Ezio and Nova were already belting towards their respective joint forces units, and Spyro saw Frost and Blaze already engaged with three wyverns each.

"3, 5, watch your backs, if they get to be too much for you, then retreat. And leave the human fighters some room for fighting, they aren't as agile."

"Aye captain. Have you noticed the big and talls out in back?"

"OH come on, he's deployed golems?" Sure enough, when the two got up to their lookout point, there were five golems rushing at them from the rear, destroying everything in their path, the oceans sloshing about in their wake. In seconds, they were on top of the carrier. But, oddly, they didn't stop.

"Spyro, what'r they doing?"

"I don't - oh ANCESTORS!" The golems pushed straight through the portal, and Spyro collapsed instantly from exhaustion of keeping the thing open. The portal collapsed behind them, and there was a ringing silence as the gravity of the situation weighed in on them all.

"DAMNIT!" Cynder shouted over the fighting, ripping Spyro's headset off his head, and placing it over her own, "Does anyone respond?"

"We are here two, whats the sit rep?"

"Not good, Spyro is out cold, Malefor pulled a fast one on us. We got no way out."

"If you can't move back, then the only route is forwards, Cynder." It was Ezio, "I know this bastards fortress from the inside out. If you don't mind, I'll lead."

"Go for it, I'll revive Spyro."

"Roger. Godspeed, two."

"Time to dive into the fireworks." Nova said quietly over the coms, as she spotted a suitable shadow lieutenant harassing a pair of F-35's down beneath her. Ezio ahead of her dropped his right wing, closing his eyes and letting gravity yank him downwards, snapping his wings open at terminal velocity, and thrusting them back hard, propelling him faster and faster. Finally, as he reached his max flight speed, he lit his light element partially, pushing himself past the sound barrier, and attacking out of the sun.

The dragon never looked up as the purple dragon's gravity element came into play. The light curved around the energy as it flew through the air, smiting the dragon directly in the back. Ezio could see the massive dents in between the wings as the dragon fell from the sky with a squall, it's spine severed.

"This is Ariel five to unidentified..." One of the lightnings chirped in.

"Just call me Ezio pilot." The purple dragon said, cruising up next to the cockpit.

"Um, ok. Thanks for the assist."

"My pleasure. Make sure you watch the backspin, those guys tend to like to use that a lot." Ezio commented.

"I noticed that. Cheeky bastard was mocking me, playing with me, I could tell." The pilot growled. Ezio only smiled. Currently, a large rocky crystal exploded a few hundred yards away, taking down an E-2C early warning aircraft.

"Ezio, I'm gonna start referring to you as Beta lead. We will now form a provisional wing as a break off from Alpha squad. I will command as Spyro is still out." Cynder said over her coms. Her voice was strained, and Ezio could hear heavy static. He guessed she was leading in the middle of combat.

"Roger lead."

"You will be leading Ariel Squad, as they are one of the few who can keep up."

"Roger. Ariel squad, channel 4." Ezio quickly turned a knob on the side of his headset, turning the radio to their channel 4 of the United Earth Forces. Finally, he heard their voices.

"He's on. Channel 4 sir."

"Channel 4 guys. Nova, break off, support Cynder, she's your commander, not me." The white dragoness looked over at him.

"Stay safe Ez." She said quietly.

"You too. RIGHT! Beta squad, FORWARD!" And Ezio pushed to the head of the group, the fighters forming on his wing. Six fighter engines roared in his ears.

"Push your engines." Ezio said, "We'll focus on the defense towers."

Ahead was what had previously been the Island that Ezio had been trained on, but it had been transformed. An energy shield, made of convexity, surrounded the Island as elites, ogres and lieutenants streamed in and out of it, using some kind of magic to slide through as if it were made of water. There was also a triple ring of sentry towers, currently hurling massive slag at the allied battlegroup, about one hundred guns strong.

iHow are we gonna take them all down?/i

"Ariel 1, what do you see?" Ezio asked.

"A crapload of firepower, I don't know the exact amount."

"My eyes mark four AA on each tower. Two flak, two AAA. Keep your distance."

"Then how are you going to hit them?"

"Focus fire on that battery to the right! Pound it into the ground!" Blaze shouted over the sounds of the howitzers going berserk. The guns had been firing over night as they had gotten closer. Blaze himself had command over six ships worth of five inch guns. Right about now he wished that he had bigger ones, as the five inch anti-ship guns here weren't cutting it.

Blaze wished he had an old Iowa class on hand, and it's trio of triple sixteen inchers. Those had been retired, because carriers were said to be able to hit at longer distances with greater firepower with more accuracy via their aircraft. But that was exactly their weakness, the aircraft. Any aircraft that had gotten close were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of anti-aircraft fire on the defense guns, which were highly inaccurate, but absolutely devastating.

Even still, blaze was having the time of his life, as were his men. One of the battery commanders ran by shouting at him.

"A good fight, sir!" He said, running to one of the guns, whose barrel was getting too hot, the steel glowing red on the inside.

"A good fight indeed!" Even still, Blaze worried about a lot of things. For starters, even with all the support frigates with supplies on-board, they couldn't hold this up for forever. And with the portal down, they couldn't resupply either. Blaze currently let off a massive ball of molten slag, adding his firepower into the current volley.

The worst thing was the missiles. They launched anti-ship missiles from inland at regular intervals, and while their subs could launch their own missiles, they had run out a long time ago.

Now the only missiles remaining were the ones aboard the heavy cruisers the USA fleet had.

There was one more thing Blaze was worried about, and that was Frost.

**End of day 1**

"CHARGE!" Frost shouted, rising above her men, pointing a claw, and then running forwards, leading her group from the sinking landing craft. A little while ago, a defense shell had gotten an indirect hit on her hovercraft landing party.

Noting for it, there was now an ice bridge over land leading to the first of the untouched defense turrets. There was phalanx fire, and even AAA and flak being rained down upon them, but Frost quickly silenced those with rapid lances of ice through the bolt chambers. She had always prided her element with being far more accurate and ingenious than most.

"Commander!" The largest panther Frost had ever seen turned towards her, saluting, "Take your men, and plant your charges on the five nearest defense towers, we need to take out the artillery. The rest of you! Clear the landing zone for the tanks and mobile howitzers!"

The men charged forwards, a group of panthers running towards the support towers where the 220 mm stationary artillery guns were held, which comprised the primary force of Malefor's anti-ship defense. The rest of the group charged to the base of the ice bridge and began setting up defensive positions t hold off any enemies that came across their path.

Suddenly, two fully grown shadow lieutenants fell out of the sky, killing several humans instantly from the force of impact and by crushing them. Several moles tried to overwhelm the shadow dragons with out and out firepower from their M80 rapid machine guns. They were also cut down, the dragons active element coming into play.

That was when Frost stepped forwards. Encasing herself in a body cast of ice she slammed full force into the closest dragon, wasting no time on glaring or spitting insults. The first one she hit was forced backwards by the force of her attack, the other came up behind her, to try and break through her casing, but the ice dragoness jumped off the chest of the first lieutenant, bring her ice encased elbow on top of the dragons head, and then swung around and brought the same elbow into her chin again, and finally, changing the shape of the ice on her fist, punched the dragon in it's chest, piercing it's heart.

That one didn't last long, now for the second.

Frost then swung around as the second dragon was recovering, and running towards her. She again, charged, and faked as if to ram him again, the dragon went to swipe down on top of her, but missed, because Frost dodged to the left, kicking the dragons right foreleg out from underneath him, and swinging up to it's back via it's wings, finally positioning herself right behind the head. Taking her fist, she rammed it through the dragons spinal cord, and such was the force of the impact that the blade protruded from the other side of the lieutenants flesh.

The dragon collapsed with Frost still on top, and she let her casing explode into a billion tiny flakes of snow, making the sun glint off the particles and her hide. All said, with the sun shining off her body, she was such an inspirational spectacle that when she shouted...

"FORWARDS!"

The group was able to actually capture one of the turrets. Suddenly, there was a bright beam of light on the turret next to theirs, and Frost looked out too see Ezio's palm up, spewing twenty four laser beams from his palm. And then twenty four bright lights came into existence, the AMRAAM missiles of the F-35's of Ariel squadron.

The boom was deafening. Despite the fact that the towers didn't topple, the guns did stop firing.

"Blaze, you've gt a clear shot to land, prepare the assault craft so you can support Frost." Cynder called over the radio. Spyro was still out of action with a concussion.

"Aye ma'am, assaulting now. Men! BRING THE RAIN!" Frost came to greet them at aldnfall, and to secure the landing zone. The two guardians rushed up the beach towards the walls, Blzes men hot on his heals.

"Plant the charges!" A tiny mole walked up, slapped a package on that was about the same size as himself and then ran back, trailing a wire. The charge went off, and when it did, there was still more concrete.

"You didn't think it would be easy, did you Blaze?" Frost asked, batting her eyelashes at him. Blaze raised his eyebrows at her flirting, but put it aside for the moment. The blast had alerted a full five shadow lieutenants to their area, and currently there were more important things on his mind than some mindless battlefield flirting.

"I SAID GET OUT OF MY WAY, MY FRIENDS NEED ME!" Spyro shouted at the doctors charging around his figure, "I could care less whether I have a rock in my head or not, now MOVE!"

The purple dragon used his earth element to quickly blast through the ships wall. He took to the sky immediately.

"Cynder, what is the situation? Tell me what I need to know." Spyro said over the coms unit he had nicked.

"Outer wall breach complete. Heavy resistance, but going strong. It doesn't feel right though." Cynder said. Spyro could see her bolting through the sky towards him, a lieutenant on her tail.

"Break on three Cynder. One, Two, THREE!" The bolt of electricity hit the dragon squarely in the open mouth as he went to spray some shadow fire towards the diving dragoness. The two landed on the forward deck of the America. Cynder had severe bags under her eyes from sleep deprivation. Ezio, whom landed next to her also looked like he was exhasted.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take Spyro." The male said, "I'm nearly completely beat. And I've no idea where Nova is. Nova? Do you read?"

"I'm here Ez. You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I was just checking up on you."

"Minor bumps and bruises. I'm inside the walls right now. We've been able to take a very tentative grasp on some of the land. Resistance is heavy, but not as heavy as I expected."

"Agreed. Spyro, somethings not right, I've felt it since we first started fighting. You can tell these guys are tough, they know what they're doing. But it still feels to light, I was expecting a flood."

"So was I." Cynder agreed.

"Yeah, I - " Spyro stopped as a very low, but very loud growl ripped through the air. Spyro looked back to find that a massive Ogre was climbing over the edge of the ship on starboard. The ship was actually listing slightly. The Ogre hauled itself up, raised a fist, and punched straight through the flight deck.

"After them!" Three beams of convexity ripped through a couple more, but one more stood up, leaned over the edge, and drilled it's fist through the starboard side of the ship. Ezio could feel the water coming in through the vibrations in the metal.

"Fire control! To the forwards bulkhead!" Spyro grabbed onto the last one, and shrouded himself in earth energy, making himself ten times heavier than normal, and causing the ogre to fall off the ship sideways, and yanked it downwards into the depths below. Cynder and Ezio ran over to the side, and leaned over looking for the celestial, but they could see nothing in the murky, churning waters. Finaly, after a while of Cynder clamping a paw around Ezio's foreleg so tight he thought it would pop off, Spyro emerged, coughing and spluttering. However, as soon as he broke the surface, he was shouting at them.

"FALL BACK! GET BACK YOU MORONS, MOVE!" Spyro said jumping upto the deck as a massive paw reached for him.

"Ugh, Ez, we just got heavy reinforcements through several portals here!" It was Nova over the coms, "Oh son of a gun, Ez, we got golems! FALL BACK!"

"Wait, what, give up the ground we just spent two days to get?"

"Ezio, we will be DEAD in ten minutes if we don't move."

"Alright, fall back to the carrier, move your sexy tail!" Ezio shouted over the coms. Suddenly, there was an almighty roar, and Ezio looked up off the prow to see a huge beam of convexity aimed right towards the treo of purple dragons. All three dodged, but the beam cut straight through the carrier, and hit the ammo magazine. There was an almighty explosion mid-ship, and the deck actually raised up and bent from the blast. Ariel squadron was already on the move, trying to get their jets in the air. A C2 hawkeye they had been working with, nicknamed eagle-eye got off the grund, as did a gouple of growlers, and a quartet of Wyvern fighter-bombers. The F-35's of ariel squad finally spooled up, and the rolled down the runway, flaps at full, and afterburners flared. Spyro saw this, and knew without the catapults they wouldn't make it. Spyro drew from the seafloor to fuel his earth element, and brought a solid slab of rock up, moving it with the group, and when they finally got airborn, they fell in with the flight group. All around, groups of ogres were overwhelming smaller ships, and Golems were taking out bigger ships. The America was sinking rapidly, and personnel were diving off the side, only to find that unholy creatures were killing aimlessly in the waters below.

Finally, Nova returned with Blaze, whom sported a patched up broken leg, and sporting Frost, whom was slung across his back, sporting several nasty gashes across her chest and snout. and trying violently to get free. Nova saluted Spyro and went to speak, but Frost shouted out.

"EZIO! WHERES KALI?" Ezio realized what she meant, and turned, sprinting down the remainder of the ship. However, it was Frost whom reached the water first, rocketing overhead, and diving into the chilly depths, Ezio right on her tail. The rest took flight, Blaze and Nova watching over the scene, and assisting in any way they could, and Spyro and Cynder going off to help in repelling the invaders. The waters were churning with Ogres and Golems.

Down below, it was a different world for Ezio. He heard the shouts, the screams, saw flashes from above, saw bullets sizzling through the water only millimeters from his body, and saw the blood rising from countless humans whom were hit by the ogres and golems. The water near the earth golems was boiling and bubbling with uncontrolled rage. Two ogres spotted him, and with surprisingly good agility, dived towards him. Ezio turned and dove deeper into the depths.

_iFROST? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?/i_

Almost as if the swear word called her to him, Ezio spotted the ice blue dragoness sparkling through the blood stained water, hovering in the darkness. He dove closer and saw that she was beside Kali, whom was unmoving as well. Both had their eyes closed. Ezio dove towards them, the ogres still hot on his tail. Ezio turned to fight them off when a torpedo suddenly rocketed out of the inky blackness and slammed full force into them, the shrapnel killing them instantly, Ezio threw up a convexity shield to protect himself, and saw the submarine cruise silently and swiftly out of the depths. Ezio threw a quick salute, flashed once, got a respective flash in return, and then it cruised onwards. Ezio could feel his lungs beginning to burn now. He dove towards Kali and Frost, but when he got into grabbing distance, he was stopped by an invisible field.

_iOH COME ON! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS!/i_

Ezio rammed his shoulder into the field, but to no avail. Finally, e gave up, his lungs about to burst, and closed his eyes, pushing, not forcing his way forwards. His hand glided gently through. He felt around, felt Frosts cold skin, and then finally found Kali's warm hide.

His world was tipped forwards when he touched Kali, and he fell through the murky depths till he landed on a solid floor. Looking around he found an incredibly familiar scene.

A tiny pool, about the size of Ezio's head was in the center of the area. Kali lay at the base, with a small shield around the pool to prevent her from getting to it, Malefor standing over her, laughing.

_iShe's fighting his control, but she's not winning./i_

_iShe has yet to win, Ezio./i_

It was Frost, on his left hand side, watching Kali as if she wanted to desperately help. Ezio tried speaking, but no words came out. Realizing his thoughts worked far better, he used those.

_iCan we not help her?/i_

_iI wish we could. She needs to break free./i_

_iLet me try, Frost. It can't hurt./i_

_iIt's best to just let it go Ez, we are but phantoms to her, she wouldn't even know we were here, even if we screamed at the top of our lungs./i_

_iThen what if we whispered gently in her ear?/i_

_iHuh?/i_

Kali was lying on the floor, shaking, and whispering quietly.

"No, please. Make it stop..."

"You want to stop? Then give up you useless runt! You are nothing but useless muscle and fodder, not even capable of pleasing even the lowest of life forms."

It was gentle, like a lover sending a card to you in a distant country, telling you thet he couldn't wait to see your smiling face again. Kali knew that feeling. She had felt it when she had been imprisoned by Malefor, after he discovered that she was conspiring against him. It was like the loneliness she had felt while on the America in solitary confinement. She could feel the love of the ones whom cared about her, even though it was distant.

Then it got stronger. A little wild and untamed, but strong nevertheless. Kali realized that it was possible to move, to stand up without being racked inside and out with pain. He was close to her now, she could feel him, even if she couldn't see him.

"Ezio?"

Malefor was bracing himself now, his muscles straining and his mouth frothing with effort. The feeling was getting stronger by the second, the pure unbridled passion and love, like that night before the invasion, when Ezio had discussed their future together. It was close and hot, and...

It just felt wrong...

It felt forced, pushed un-natural. It was quickly rejected and replaced by something that felt warmer than usual, but not hot and passionate, just comfy and soft, like a brotherly sort of love. She knew he still cared for her, more than most ever would, and that he would still take a bullet for her, but for different reasons.

Now Malefor had reach his breaking point. He was vomiting now, pucking up blood and saliva, his eyes were bulging, and his muscles were straining, popping tendons and fighting the one feeling he could not stand. His skin was ripping open with the strain, his face going pail, and finally, he exploded in a puff of sparks and a plume of smoke, and the shield surrounding the pool faded slowly away.

"Ezio?" Kali shouted out to the open space. To Ezio, whom was now standing right beside her, helping to support the dragoness whom looked as if she might faint, it was wordless and soundless, but he knew what it meant.

Finally, as Kali stopped trying to figure everything out, and she approached the hole, she turned back to the deserted room and whispered in her mind, smiling.

_iThank-you./i_

And as she dived in, all was silent. Ezio watched the hole for a while till he realized for the first time he heard something, the soft padding of paws behind him. He turned to find Frost standing a few feet away.

He wasn't expecting the hug though, as she ran up and threw her wings around him, sniffling ever so slightly.

"Thank-you Ezio. You've no idea how much it means to me."

"Ack! Frost! This isn't like you!"

"Hehe, it is, you just don't really know me." She said smiling, and then also darted down the hole. Ezio was about to do the same, when he heard a low faint growl.

"You haven't seen the last of me, Ezio. Your mind will soon rock with untold misery, and there will be no escape." Ezio turned to see two yellow eyes staring at him out of the darkness.

"Not today I won't." Ezio said, taking a step back and letting the pool of water suck him in.

He began the long swim to the surface with things already on his mind.


	12. Chapter 12

Ezio could see light ahead. His lungs were burning with how long he had actually been underwater. Yes his functions had slowed down, and the fact that he was a dragon meant extended breathing time.

That still didn't keep his head from going light, or his lungs screaming at him that they needed air.

_iJust a little further./i_

He felt something knock his elbow and look over to find an unconscious Kali hovering by him, bubbles slowly rising form her mouth. Her time had run out, and she needed air now. He looked around and found Frost close by as well in a similar condition. He grabbed the two and kicked as hard as he could, propelling himself towards the surface. He tried using his elements, but his energy was running low, and he could do little except let the pressure push him forwards, and kick with all his might. Finally, he felt his head breach the surface.

"THERE!" He heard Blaze shout over him as the sounds of battles came back to life. He looked around to find a surfaced submarine, the same one that had helped him out earlier, and hauled both females onto it's prow, finally dragging himself along. He felt two people grab the two dragonesses, and finally someone with warm skin grab him and drag him upwards as well. He looked up to see Nova administering mouth to mouth with Kali.

_iLeast if Kali wakes up to find Nova standing over her, she won't go ballistic./i_

Finally, after five cycles of mouth to mouth, water began to dribble out of Kali's mouth.

"No..." There was a very quiet rumble, and finally, the water gushed forth. There must have been at least four gallons worth, and Kali's eyes snapped up, coughing so violently that she even spewed a bit of blood and saliva.

"Oh thank god Kali, are you alright?" Ezio asked dragging himself forwards.

"Yes." She said simply, lying back and resting. She finally looked as if she were at peace, no more internal conflicts. Nova looked over at Frost, but found the dragoness was already on her feet. Blaze looked odd to Ezio, but he pushed that out of his mind for the time being.

"Come on guys, lets MOVE!" The group looked up to see Spyro and Cynder hovering in mid air. In the background, the allied forces were retreating. The main bulk of there force was still going, and if Ezio could give a rough estimate, he'd say 70% of the force was still in fighting shape, but that was dying quickly. Ezio heard a massive explosion and turned to see the America, split in two, sink into the ocean. Suddenly, Ezio spotted a craft fall out of the afts side hanger, a red and white helicopter that looked like a Sea Stallion.

"Marine one." Ezio shouted. The group as one turned to watch as the chopper fell into the ocean, and one by one the different dragons saluted, Spyro and Cynder landing to watch.

"Come on guys, lets get out of here." Spyro said as the last part of the stern disappeared from view.

It took most of the day to find enough rallied forces to actually form a task group, consisting of one full Fleet Carrier, an American old CVN-68 nicknamed the defiance, the last of the great Nimitz class carriers. With it was two Light Carriers, seven gun cruisers, and eighteen frigates. There were also four PT gunboats, and two subs, one of them a brand new Capillary drive silent runner. The other forces were either destroyed or lost, and with the unfamiliar terrain and the magnetic scrambling of Saturn's nearby rings, plus the lack of Gps, they really were lost.

"The problem is the countries have relied to much on technology. We have had to resort to old time methods that are incredibly inaccurate at best, since all the methods were developed on earth." Ezio explained to Blaze. There was suddenly a roar heard over the water, and then a voice chirped over the radio.

"Spyro. Defiance, this is special guest alpha, vectoring in." Spyro called over the coms.

"What did you find, Spyro?" Kali asked over the radio, worry thick in her voice.

"Nothing. It is confirmed, the president and his commanders went down with the America." Spyro called over the radio.

"My god, the entire command structure of the US was decimated! Spyro - " Nova was starting to mildly panic.

"First things first, we need to find shelter and land." Spyro ordered quickly before hysteria could set in.

"I know of a place, sir." Ezio said quietly.

Ezio did indeed know of one place. He had discovered it while using his light element. A small mountain island with a perfect cove, large, and it hid the ships almost entirely from anything on sea level outside. However, from the air the island was perfectly visible, and somewhat exposed, but it left a great amount of room for firepower to be launched.

Ezio had never landed on the island, and wouldn't have found it except for the occasional disruption of light from the moon on a certain nighttime flight way from the camp when he was held prisoner by Malefor. It was these flights that had allowed them to plan without being overheard. The Island was relatively large, and was in fact part of a chain of similar Islands. The main one was half the size of Iceland, and completely uninhabited. It also held a network of decent sized rivers, just large enough to hold the main carrier. The other ships hid among the smaller Islands, and using high speed hovercraft it was ten minutes from the farthest possible boat. A command structure was quickly set up. The captain of the defiance gathered all the members and friends of Alpha squad together, to have a chat.

"I'm gonna be honest here Spyro. It makes me nervous to be talking to something besides a human, but I'll do my best to treat you as one. As far as this war goes, I know nothing f how to fight it, and thus I defer to you. This entire provisional fleet is under your command." The captain announced when they were all gathered.

"Then this is the true forming of the united earth forces. We now have nowhere near the amount of firepower we should have to go toe to toe with Malefor's forces. We need something a bit more strategic." Spyro said looking around, "And for the first time, I've run out of ideas."

"Wait, what?" Blaze looked surprised, and Frost, whom was by his side more now, also raised her eyebrows.

"I need to think upon it, form a plan. You guys need to relax and rest, you've all got bags under your eyes." Spyro said, walking away with Cynder following him.

"Heh, speak for himself eh? I've not seen a dragon as tired as him since the second war." Frost said quietly.

"Come on guys, lets go hunker down on dry land finally. It'll be like a vacation." Kali said, moving towards the gang-plank that had been extended from the carrier, which was anchored in the middle of the river. The river was so small you could actually cross it via the carrier. Ezio had a feeling it was actually two Islands very close to each other simply.

It was odd, but as he disembarked from the carrier, Ezio had the wildest feeling he was being watched, his sixth sense kicking in. Suddenly, there was a battle cry, and Ezio turned just in time to see a flash of white, a whistling sound, and brought his guard up just in time to block the attack, a gunmetal grey tail spade ringing against his bright glittering silver one. Suddenly, all the humans were rushing around trying to find weapons, and the rest of the dragons were trying to get in to fight against this new threat.

However, the attacks were coming so fast and violently that Ezio was having a hard time even seeing his target, the creature was blurring so much. There was even a point where Nova used her element and hit nothing but air, despite the shot's extreme speed.

Ezio could barely keep up, and he never got a clear look at the attacker. He felt his energy wan quickly from the recent battles, and finally was forced to use dragon time.

And finally, he realized what was going on. The enemy was using time to speed themselves up. Ezio slammed all his effort into time, and finally a young dragoness appeared in front of him, still moving exceptionally fast ad her technics for hand-to-hand were well developed, even if they were rough around the edges. Finally, Ezio pushed back with his gravity element, surprising the dragoness and drawing her in, finally grabbing her around the throat and holding his blade against her neck. She still struggled violently, and Ezio noticed very quickly the numerous spikes were very sharp. He also fund that she was unusual even for a dragoness, as she had so many odd body parts that he had never seen before.

Finally, as Ezio lost control on time, the dragoness speed back up again and the purple dragon had a tough time holding onto the female.

"ENOUGH, young one!" He finally shouted after a particularly powerful jerk, "Give it up!"

"Like hell I will Malefor! Let me go, damn it, let go!" She stamped so quickly on his paw that his joints dislocated.

"Blast it, someone grab her!" Nova jumped forwards and grabbed the dragoness's hind legs, pushing with all her might and toppling the warrior. The dragon continued t struggle, despite Ezio's tail blade breaking skin.

"Get off me! LEGGO OF ME DAMNIT!"

"Enough, youngling!" Ezio shouted, "You are cornered and defeated."

The dragoness went into an explosive fit of violent swearing making oaths of revenge. Finally, Ezio shouted over the dragoness.

"Peace my friend. I am not your enemy."

"To hell with that! I know your face bastard, and any who ally themselves alongside them are no friend of mine. Release me Malefor, and feel my wrath!"

"It is not I whom is Malefor!" Ezio said, still struggling as the dragoness was putting up an incredible fight, "Someone grab her!"

Nova ran up and grabbed the dragoness's hind paws, and together they forced the dragoness to the ground, where she still struggled.

"ENOUGH!" Ezio looked up and saw Spyro standing there, with Cynder by his side. The dragoness also looked up, and stopped struggling immediately.

"Spyro?" She whispered, "The legendary one? What the hell are you doing here. And let me go dammit, whoever you are!"

"You gonna stop trying to kill me?" Ezio said quietly.

"I agree to stop trying to kill you till I find out who you are." She said. Ezio got up, and Nova, rather reluctantly, got off her hind legs, which she was sitting on. The dragoness stood up straight watching Spyro.

"Your name?" Spyro said shortly.

"Katana, sir."

"And your element?" Spyro said. Ezio had never seen him stair at someone with such intensity.

"Time." There was an intake of breath from Nova, Frost, and Blaze. Ezio nodded slightly, confirming her story.

"That's a rare and powerful element, Katana. And difficult to control. I'm surprise you wield it so well." Spyro said, watching her closely.

"My father, before he died taught me close combat maneuvers, but my element I taught myself." Katana said, watching the others out of the corner of her eye.

"Your father?"

"A shadow force lieutenant, whom was more loyal to his mate than to Malefor. It was my mothers wish, before she died, wished for me to have a full life. My father, whom was a drunk, thought the best way for me to live was to teach me how to survive." She said quietly. She seemed nervous. Though Ezio thought if he were surrounded by three purple dragons and three guardians, he would be nervous as well.

"Ezio, a word." Spyro said suddenly, and gesturing a short ways away as some of the humans started to catch up. Several rifles were aimed at the dragoness, but she just grinned back.

"How good is she?" Spyro asked quietly, with Ezio facing him a short distance away. Cynder was also listening in.

"Very. In fact, if it weren't for that her story fits in, I'd say she was lying. The attacks are fast and accurate, and if she can really use her element that well, I'd say she's a natural." Ezio said. Spyro stared at him.

"A natural time user?" Spyro said in incredulity.

"Yeah, why not? And Spyro, she's that good. I only slowed time down enough to fight her, not match her, and she was still pushing my limits. She musta had time slowed down 100 times more than normal, and if I tried to do that, I'd pass out. We gotta test her limits." Ezio said, looking over his shoulder at the youngling. Based on her size, since she was twice as small as himself even, she must have been eighteen or nineteen years old.

"Even still, time is a difficult element, even for me. A natural user I thought to be impossible." Spyro said quietly, "If a vergence of elements was to happen, don't you think it would have been prophesied? And don't you think Malefor would have taken advantage of it?"

"It could be possible Malefor didn't know, but I doubt that happens. But think about it, if she's that good, she could escape from Malefor and stay hidden. I didn't know about her." Ezio murmured.

"And Spyro, look at you. You didn't exactly come riding in on a golden horse. You had as humble of beginnings as she." Cynder said by his side.

"Well, I don't exactly go around telling everyone I was a dragonfly, do I?" Spyro sniped back, smiling. Sparx just chuckled without saying anything.

"Quiet Sparx."

"I didn't say anything!"

"Didn't have to..."

"Maybe we should ask Kali about her. If anyone would know of a secret child among the shadow force, Kali would know." Ezio said, looking back at the dragoness.

"Where is she?" Cynder asked.

"Being as helpful as possible right now, I think she's trying to make up for all the mistakes she made." Spyro said.

"I'll get her." Ezio lit his light element, and a minute later, flapping wings could be heard before the two touched down in the tropical forest clearing. Katana took an instinctive step backwards.

"Who're you?" Katana asked quietly.

"Former shadow force lieutenant. Your younger, so if you really were a babe among the forces, I would know."

"And?"

"She was. Your lucky, I only heard of you once, when you escaped. Her story checks out Spyro, I was there trying to chase her down." Kali said quietly, still watching the dragoness.

"You seem like you know her..." Ezio said, watching the two.

"I was the only one fast enough to catch her. The only person to ever beat me in a fair fight. And I regretted it too. It took a month for my wing to stitch up. Malefor was going to confront her, but he was in France when it happened." Kali said. Katana backed up even further.

"I'm not going to hold it against you young one, but when I saw you, it was in the dark, and all was confusing. I mistook you for a much bigger dragoness. How on earth can someone so young beat a pro?" Kali said.

"I don't know, combat always came naturally to me." She said quietly.

"Perhaps her education has lacked. I'm telling you Spyro, if she's a vergence - " Spyro stopped Ezio in his musings.

"If she is indeed a vergence, then I will train her personally myself. AFTER this entire thing is done. Till then we need to find out how much she knows."

"EXCUSE me!" It was Katana, "I don't like it when people talk abut me and I don't know what they are saying. It means tough times are ahead of me."

"Tough times are ahead of us all young one." Spyro said approaching her. He stood two feet higher than her, and felt odd looking down at someone so powerful, "We all have tough times. With the issue of the president being dead, and our command ship being down - "

"You mean that massive carrier?" Katana piped up, "I could see the smoke from miles away. You guys are lucky to have made it out, Malefor just wanted to wear you down, and lure you into a point of vulnerability."

Spyro stared. They all stared, since they knew she was exactly right. The way the president had formed the attack plan was too go gung ho and all out, the classic American way.

"Now we have a different problem on our hands. Because the call was "Retreat immediately" our forces are now scattered about the moo, and with no way of navigation, nor finding location, even by ancient methods, we are on our own here." Spyro finished off, "Basically put, 30% of our forces died, but we are down in strength by 90%."

"Then our next plan of attack should not be all out. We need t strike NOW." Ezio looked over. It was a human he had never met before, chisel jawed and strong in build, yet very slender. He was dressed in a flight suit, and held a fighter helmet, the one of an F-35, under his right arm.

"Ariel squad?" Ezio spoke up.

"Ariel lead, mighty Ezio. If the stories are indeed correct, then your one hell of a pilot." The man said smiling, "You can call me by my call-sign, Lancer."

"Lancer? Hehe, the stories you've heard are correct, but you need not listen to them, you've flown against me once already, and if I might say so, that put my piloting skills to the test." Lancer looked confused at first, but then his eyes went wide, and his grip on his helmet lightened so much that it was dangling by a finger once he realized what was happening and he regained composure.

"I knew I heard your voice once before! You were the pilot of that B-17 half a year ago! I thought you were human!"

"I was. Your in a new world now Lancer, where normal rules don't apply, so be careful where you step."

"The pilot is right, a strike sooner rather than later would be smart, but were not going t attack right this instant. While Malefor knew we would be on the planet at some point, and thus had spies watching us, I bet he didn't know that we would be on his turf at some point. We should be safe fr a little bit, and in the mean time, we need to do some intelligence gathering." Spyro said, "And fortuneatly, I think we have just the person for the job now."

The group looked at Katana then.

"Awe, come on!"

"I said no!"

_iThis female is ridiculously stubborn./i_ Nova thought to herself as she watch Spyro try and convince her to do this little bit of scouting for them.

"Why not?"

"Why do you need me?"

"Because anyone able bodied enough is too recognizable. All of alpha squadron has fought the shadow force long enough for every single one of them to know our faces. Your the only one powerful enough to go in under a disguise and try and find a weakness in their defense with any chance of success." Spyro said. They had been at this for nearly two hours, despite the fact that Katana had tried to run.

"Then make it a suicide mission, damnit, I said no!" She backed away again as if to run, but she had run out of places to hide. "Malefor and his blasted forces you might not be, but I still want you off my Island!"

"Will you fight me if I said I won't leave?"

"You know I couldn't do that, you'd have the ability then to throw me in your stockades." Katana however looked as if she wished nothing more though, than to strike out and smack the purple dragon.

"Then as far as I can tell, it's my Island, not - "

SMACK. It wasn't very hard, but it was enough to send the dragon sprawling to the ground. His skin even was unmarked, but the whole of alpha squadron still lept upon her as she snarled at Spyro.

"YOU DARE TRY AND CLAIM MY OWN HOME, THE ISLAND I CALLED MY RESTING PLACE YOURS BY SHEER FORCE THEN YOUR NO BETTER THAN THE ONE YOU FIGHT!" Despite the fact that Katana was held back by three dragons, she struggled so much using her element to aid her that she actually got free once. The dragons stood behind her to keep her from striking against Spyro rolled to his feet, but refrained from holding her back again.

"Orders, Spyro?" Ezio said, indicating it was Spyros situation, not his own. Not only that, but while Ezio might be stronger than Spyro, he never did want to even lead a dragon into battle or through it. He lacked the experience Spyro had.

"Leave her be. Katana, if you care so much for your home, then why do you not help us?"

"Because my life is worth more than my home. I shall leave if you continue to claim this place as your own." She replied, "Although I like it not. This place has been my home since my father died, and I have guarded it vigorously."

"Either your life or your home it matters not, at some point Malefor will take it without your assistance."

"Why do you say that?" She asked, suddenly contrite.

"Because we lack the power to beat him, so we must win through finesse. If no one can do this scouting, then we might as well go into hiding for a long time, until someone strong enough to beat him comes about. Either that, or we run from earth, and never look back." he said, "I know not what lies among the stars, but rest assured, there is a home out there for us somewhere just as nice as the current ones of today."

Katana looked as if she regretted what she said.

"Also you should know I would never forcefully take someones home from them. I only ask that you let us bunk here for a while."

"You may rest on my land. And if I said yes to your request of this mission, would you lend me as much support as I ask?" Katana asked watching him.

"Of course."

"Then when this goes down, I want your two best warriors to escort me there and hide just off the camps perimeter. If anything happens, they should be there in seconds." Katana said, looking around at the dragons surrounding her. They were all much taller than her, but that's not what intimidated her.

"Deal. Frost, can you get her ready? Nova, Ezio, you shall accompany her." The three dragons stepped forwards, "We'll leave you too it. We do this in one week Nova. In that time, Frost will show you how you will be disguised, and Kali will enlighten you on how the camps of the shadow forces work.


	13. Chapter 13

**The Siege of Europa, part 3**

"What do you mean, he's gone?"

"I mean he's not there. Malefor left for earth about an hour before we arrived, from what I can tell. He's not there." Katana reported. She hadn't been there very long, only long enough to acertain the dark master really had left the terraformed satallite.

"Then we should attack now!" Frost said, turning to Spyro immediately, "We might never get this chance again. Whats he doing leaving his forces to act by themselves?"

"Was Smaug there, Katana?" Spyro asked.

"Oh yeah, no doubt he was there, he was lording his power over us lieutenants. I was lucky to be able to keep quiet, otherwise he might have known I wasn't actually one of them." Katana said shivering. While she had been in the enemies camp, they had gone through an emergency inspection. Malefor had called for several lieutenants to assist him from the planet, but he wanted Smaug to remain to lead his forces in case an attack came. The general had come within feet of the dragoness, but to save her own skin she had kept quiet. It had been about a week since she had met alpha squadron, and she had found out that they might be her only way of finding purpose in her life.

Much had happened in the last week.

A huge bonfire roared along the beach as the sailors from the various ships camped along the coastline of the river and sea. Many of them were relieved to be on dry land again, even if it was a small island.

Frost walked among them, helping where she could. She had been determined to show that dragons were not the one causing the humans grief, as the rumors she had heard suggested. Ever since they had learned that the american president, and quite a few leaders of the planet had gone down with the supercarrier, USS America, the marines and sailors had indeed talked with her with grim sullen expressions that always held an accusing stare.

The Ice dragoness might not be as usful as Blaze, but she at least wanted to ease their suffering, because in part, she did feel responsible for all the agony. She saw a large amount of this agony too, since she was most helpful as a medic. She had known that there would be atrocities committed on both sides of this war, but she did not realize how much until they had all started repairing the damage to the ships and their inhabitants. Yes many of them had escaped with their lives, but many more were wounded or mutilated beyond repair. Many of the men she had healed or patched up today had missing body parts, where an ogre, big and brutish, had torn their limbs off. She heard tell of how men had been ripped from neck to groin in half by those monsters, how it had taken an entire platoon to take down a lieutenant that had decided to be the hero and take out as many as possible, and how half that platoon had shadow burns on their entire left side, or their eyes had been burned clear from their skulls.

Frost finally finished on one of the men, and decided to take a short reprieve as the men hunkered down for the night. Alpha squadrons new friend, Katana strolled through the clearing on the edge of the calm water looking with empty eyes upon her new-found comrades. It was easy to tell that this wasn't the first time she had seen carnage and death. The younglings past was a mystery to her, but Frost knew better than to say she was inexperienced because of her youth. Even still, just by her eyes, Frost could tell this was the worst she had seen.

Frost looked around trying to find some comfort in the scene. Finally, she say the tiniest of fires off on a distant cliff over looking the sea. A gleaming red figure with pink hair was sitting by the edge staring out over the waters.

Nova whom was helping the ice dragoness with the infirm caught her eye and didn't smile, but jerked her head toward the cliff with the faintest hint of a suppressed smile. Frost looked around to find msot everyone bunking down for the night so she nodded towards Nova, and stopped in front of Katana before continuing on her way. Katana looked at her with hollow eyes.

"I know this misery."

"I can tell. I'm not going to say it'll be alright, because I don't know whether it will myself. But keep your chin up anyways. It's from past experience I can tell you it always gets better, and if it doesn't, then you'll eventually be released from the pin. Misery never lasts forever, so long as theres a being capable of smiling." Frost said looking down at the younger female.

"In the oddest of ways that makes sense, but I never thought I'd hear it from you." Frost laughed at that. Nova looked up startled, it was the first time she had ever heard Frost laugh. It was the sharpest yet clearest of laughs she had ever heard, and reminded her slightly of an icicle breaking upon stone.

"God Frost that's a first. Your laughing, do I need to declare you unfit for duty?" Nova smiled brightly at her. Frost chuckled quietly.

"Optimism for me Nova is a recent development, and I find it's one of the few things that I have to hold onto." Frost said, spreading her wings.

"Then I just might keep this war going just to hear you laugh again." Nova called back.

"You need not worry about that! If I ever need a laugh I'll just punch Blaze for no reason!" Frost called over her shoulder as she darted towards the speck of light.

* * *

Blaze always had loved the sound of a properly strong fire. His grandad had always taught him that no matter the size or strength a proper fire could always be a comfort, even on the darkest of nights. Blaze had never understood that until recently. Whilst he had always swooned over women and had had many companions, he had never actually experienced love until this war. Quake and Thunder had spoken of it before, but had difficulty describing it.

He had never expected to encounter the best fire he had ever experienced on one of his darkest of nights. And still, like a fire, the comfort of old love still warmed him on these dark days, despite having been mutilated by the strongest of winds, a little bit of it still kindled inside of him.

He took a deep breath, feeling the warmth of the embers on his back and watching the slow progress of the triple moons across the sky. He felt a gust of wind behind him, and the slightest drop in temperature, but then the heat flared. He started and looked over his shoulder to find a fresh log on the fire and Frost walking towards him, sitting herself down next to him.

"Hey, whats up flame butt?" she asked teasingly, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Just thinking back to old days."

"And what? Leaving us females to do all the hard work?" It struck him then exactly why no one had crossed his path for a while. He slapped a paw over his forehead drawing it down over his muzzel.

"Ah geezus Frost, I'm sorry."

"Yeah you are sorry, but I won't hold it against you. You'd just get in the way since you have no medical training what-so-ever."

"Haha, yeah, I'm just there to protect your butt."

"Excuse me? I can take care of myself, thank-you-very-much. And what old days? Were both in our prime."

"Well ok, old friends and comrades." Frost was silent for a while, watching the large bulk of the fire dragon next to her. Frost hadn't looked at him to much recently, but she just then noticed the male gave off the faintest of glows from the inside, as if the fire within was trying to escape.

"You've been quiet lately." Frost finally broke the peace.

"What, you mean like you? We've all been quiet. We've all had things on our mind. Spyro and Cynder have been quiet because they've been trying to co-ordinate this army, YOU'VE been quiet because of the appearance of your daughter, and thus she has been quiet because of you, and somewhat because of Ezio, and speaking of Ezio, him and Nova have been quiet because of their awkwardness around each other." And so it had been. Everyone was so busy being leaders that they had all been quite, trying to conserve as much time for themselves, and thinking when they actually had the time to themselves on their various dilemmas.

Frost again was quiet for a while, and then...

"You know I think I've underestimated you Blaze." Frost said, out of the blue. Blaze looked taken aback by the sudden change in direction the conversation had taken.

"How so?"

"Well before this all began, you were always laughing and always having a joke at everyone's expense, even when the time wasn't appropriate. Now all of a sudden, your all mister serious. I know why you haven't been laughing, but I never expected you to be so full of insight. You know everyones problems. Your almost as bad as Eclipse was! There's something else too."

"What's that?"

"I'm surprised you haven't taken a go at my daughter. She's not exactly an ogre." Frost said, now turning to face him.

"If your off limits so is she." Blaze stated shortly.

"What makes you think I'm off limits?" It took a full five seconds for Blaze to comprehend what the dragoness had just said, and then another five seconds of staring at her to convince himself she had said it.

"Um, unspoken consent? I dunno Frost, you never actually said to lay off, but then you've never exactly been friendly to me either, have you? And I figured the same went for Kali. I'm surprised you even accept the fact that she IS your daughter. Don't you find the situation awkward?"

"I do, but that doesn't mean I'm going to deny it. It is what it is, and nothing I can do is going to change that. I've talked to her about it, and we've agreed to treat the entire thing like a sister-sister relationship. I won' get involved with anything that has to do with her. Yes I'll give her advice, but the way I see it she might as well be my age and have my experience, because her life has been very hard from the start." She finished, thinking back to their discussion. It still made her head throb, but she was glad to be past it.

"What about when you inevitably face Smaug? Cause you know we will at some point."

"Kali hates him as much as I do. I hope though, that I have the pleasure of sinking my tail spade into his heart." Frost said, an edge creeping into her voice.

"Frost, have I ever told you I'm glad were not enemies?" Frost laughed.

"No, but it's sweet of you." She said, rubbing her side against his.

* * *

"Oh, ah, AAAAH. Holy crap it feels good to stretch out my wings. I mean I love flying, but ancestors I can only do so much before they begin to ache!" Nova groaned again as she stretched her leading edges full twelve foot length, accidentally clipping Ezio on the very tip of his nose. The dragon sneezed as the tickle reach his nostril.

"Heh, oops sorry Ez."

"Mmm." Nova frowned at him as he barely replied.

"Oh come on Ezio, whats your issue? We haven't spoken hardly at all since you came back."

"And for good reason!"

"Oh please Ez, your not harping on about how you killed them, are you? It's hardly your fault, and unlike Blaze, I haven't held you against it in the slightest!"

"To hell with tha! You attacked me Nova! With intent to kill!" He snapped back.

"Out of ignorance. Come on Ezio, how long is this going t go on? We used to be fiends, why can't we still be the best of them?"

"Nova, I killed your promised life mate!"

"He was hardly my life mate then. And besides, you might have wielded the blade, but it was Malefor himself who swung it." She said as he turned away and walked a good distance from their fire.

"Even still, I could not in good consciousness be your friend. Don't you miss him?" He asked quietly. She was silent for a while and he turned around to face her. She looked as if she were on the verge of tears.

"More than you can possibly know. But Ez, when I met you, I was finally able to reconcile myself to the fate that I would never see him again." She said quietly.

"So how did you feel when you met him again?"

"So many emotions flooded through me at the moment that I got confused. Anger and hate at Malefor for thrusting this situation upon me. Anger and hate at myself for letting him go and then letting myself go through anguish and hope at the same time all over again. And anger and hate at him for not telling me he was alive. It wasn't his fault, but he still should have tried to find me. It's what I would have done for him, had I known." Nova said in a hugr rush, letting the words spill out of her mouth in a raging torrent.

"And how do you feel now?"

"I... I. Odd. I feel split."

"I know what you mean."

"How could you poss-"

"I ended up in the middle of darkness, in a strange new body thinking every creature around me, everyone I slept with was hostile towards me. Imagine one day when I'm down on my luck, a dragoness comes and offers me a hand, and helping me out of my situation. Together we form a plan to try and free ourselves from Malefor. And in the middle of all this we draw strength from each other. You know just as well as I do where that leads." Ezio said, walking towards her into the firelight, also spilling the words in a rush from his mouth, "Imagine my surprise when our plan succeeds, and against all hope, I get to see you again, something I never thought I'd do. And yet I had already reconciled to the fact that I would ever see you again, not in a friendly way at least."

The purple dragon was in the firelight now, and Nova was startled to see small tears also running down his face, although he was trying to repress them. The dragoness looked down at the ground and let out a choked sob, smiling and crying at the same time, and leaned forwards into the males chest, rubbing her head up under his chin.

"You said you'd always be there for me..."

"I broke my promise when I was enslaved." He whispered in her ear, savoring the touch of the females soft skin.

"No you didn't." She breathed back, "You were always there. Ask the others, for two weeks I said not a word, didn't eat a thing."

"They told me you were trying to kill yourself."

"To join you." Ezio drew back and looked at her, "I knew Eclipse was watching, and so I refrained from doing so. When I saw my old home again, Concurrent Skies, a drop of hope kindled inside my chest, and that kindling grew into a fire when I saw my former mate. We both knew that we couldn't be mates again, so by unspoken consent, we left well enough alone. I thought, 'If my old mate survived, as well as my home, then perhaps you would be alive too, looking up at the sky and hoping I was staring back at you.'"

"But your homes gone now, along with your former life mate." Ezio replied quietly. Nova just shook her head and leaned back into him.

"To be replaced by you! Even after all Malefor has done to you, your still there for me!"

"But Nova! I still fell in love in Malefor's service!" This time Nova drew back, and looked at him seriously, tears still running down her muzzel.

"Did you really? Think about it."

He did. He sat there for three full minutes thinking about it. And no matter which way he looked at it, he couldn't find it in himself to say yes. Because no matter what, he had still let Kali go. And she had let him go too. Nova must have seen it in his eyes, and reached up ever so slightly and brushed her lips against his.

This Ezio knew. He remembered everything, from the taste of her breath to the softness of her skin to the nearly inaudible sigh when she drew away. And unlike Kali, whom had been passionate and vigorous, he could still detect that soft gentle love deep down inside her, that despite it lacked the energy of Kali, it was far more passionate.

Despite the kiss lasting for less than a second, it seemed like an eternity to Ezio. It was like diving into a lake without knowing how deep it was. He didn't know how it would end, but he knew that he would enjoy the flight all the way down.

When they finally broke apart, Ezio looked down at the dragoness, and laughed.

"I guess I got more than I bargained for when I said I wanted an adventure this summer!" Nova laughed with him, and for a long time, they couldn't stop.

* * *

"I'm glad I disbanded the squad." Spyro said quietly, wafting gently over the various camps. He had viewed so much misery, and yet so much joy in one night that he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Cynder flew so close to him that their wings touched frequently.

"Are you really?" Cynder asked quietly, "Because you know if you hadn't, then there might be others here with us today."

"If I had done it sooner, far more might be with us."

"Do you regret what were doing?"

"For all the lives we might save? No. For the lives that we've lost? Definitely." Spyro said quietly.

"Your thinking of her again buddy." Sparx said by his ear. Spyro flared his wings to a sudden stop, hovering in place and looking at his tiny brother.

"How can I not? Thundra was born an orphan. She'll never know what Eclipse or Thunder were like."

"Yes she will, Spyro!" Cynder said sharply next to him, "Because of us."

"And what of us, Cynder? No matter what we do to stop Malefor, he always seems to counter us. If we don't beat him soon, she might not grow up with anyone." Cynder was silent for a while, "And all because of that stupid squadron."

"Keep hope, Spyro. Either we win, or we die, all of us. And if that is so, then may I meet you in the hall of our ancestors with all those that are before us and all those to come." She said firmly. Spyro thought about it.

"Your right. Even still though, I'd like to spare the coming generations."

"There will always be someone to oppose him, Spyro. We emt someone like that today."

"Aye. Katana will be a great warrior." Spyro said. He had taught her, alongside Kali today, of the traditions and training regimens the shadow forces used, and without fail she had grasped every single subject with a ferocity that was both scary and impressive, learning things incredibly fast. At the end of the day, Spyro had spared with the young dragoness, and her combat skills were so impressive that she was as good as Spyro's equal, even when he used every single one of his elements, including convexity. For the first time today, he had someone dodge his convexity beams.

Not even Malefor had been able to do that. Block them yes, but not evade them.

"Greater than you?" Sparx asked, looking at him skeptically.

"Possibly." He said grinning.

"Hehe, I doubt that Spyro. She is too young to be world changing. If anyone is going to radically alter these races, it will be you." Cynder said, turning and flying onwards.

"Hehe, yooou. Pressure or anything." Sparx mumbled. Spyro nearly fell out of the air laughing at the nostalgia. Finally he was able to calm himself enough.

"Sparx don't do that, we could end up in the ground. Do you mind flying to the carrier and telling Lancer it's his turn to take watch?" Sparx lift an eyebrow, glanced at Cynder then shrugged and turned away. Spyro waited until his glow was about a mile off before continuing onward.

"He still doesn't approve of us?" Cynder asked drawing abreast of him.

"He doesn't like it, but he knows that rejecting it and being angry at me about ti is pointless number one, and number two it's against our code." Cynder lifted an eyebrow, "Meh, he came up with the idea when his first girlfriend came around. I laughed my head off, so when she left, we both laid down some ground rules between us. The code has stuck ever since, and it's come in very usfull. He doesn't like it, but he knows he can't say anything."

"Not a bad idea considering it's Sparx."

"Like I said, it was his idea." Spyro was quiet for a long while, but then turned towards Cynder again, "And what of you? How are you doing?"

"My injuries are healing normally." Spyro flared his wings again.

"That's not what I meant. There's a bigger reason for me to end this war than the races of earth." He said drawing close to the female and wrapping his forelegs around her distended stomach, and letting his wings keep them aloft. Cynder closed her eyes and cooed, rubbing against Spyro's stomach.

"Were both doing just fine. The strain of second won't get to us. Were both tougher than you might think." She said drawing back and smiling at Spyro.

"Does anyone know yet?" He asked looking worried.

"Not a soul." They remained there till Spyro heard the distant roar of jet engines, and they drew apart, continuing on their patrol route. Even still, when Lancer, Ariel squad's lead grew close, an amused voice came over the radios.

"You want me to leave the two of you alone?"

"Shad'up you hunk of tin and flesh." Spyro intoned sarcastically over the radio.

**End of the Siege of Europa**

**

* * *

**

Early the next morning Katana drifted over the canopy of the trees. Many fires still burned brightly, because so many people had been unable to sleep for various reasons. Katana even knew most of the new dragons she had met were still up, though the purple and two black ones had gone to nest for the night. She knew the white one and the one from Malefor were still awake, though she didn't know their location, much to her chagrin. The blue and red one were still out upon Farsight cliff. She was fine with that, as she preferred Sunrise bluff, since that had a perfect view of which it was named after, whilst Farsight was much better for watching the sun set.

Katana knew the locations of every dragon that had come to her home. She had allowed them to stay, but that did not mean she trusted them. Katana was not sure of how the white one and the one of Malefor had escaped her, but she was sure it had something to do with their elements.

Katana didn't worry though. Up here she had the high area, and thus she was master and commander of her domain. This was her land, and because it was the only thing she cared about, she would defend it with her all. This was the Island she had called home sicne her Father had died seven years ago.

Seven years. Seven long years. Katana had watched the sunset that night. It meant something to her, because it meant the sun had been setting on one of the chapters of her life. She knew that no matter what happened, she was leaving her old life behind and was starting anew.

She had watched the sunset last night as well, before the red one had arrived on her Farsight cliff. It had been the first time she had watched the sunset from that cliff in seven years.

And now this time, she turned towards Sunrise cliff, as the orange disk peered over the horizon, warming her beautiful hide and welcoming her into what she knew to be the rising of a new chapter in her life.

As she alighted upon said cliff, she heard flapping to the west. She did not turn, as the smell of smoke and the hint of shellfish from the cave beneath Farsight cliff told her it was the Red and Blue ones. They stayed close and yet far, not as lovers, but as the greatest of friends, and comrades to the end, bound by honour. The white one, and the one whom looked as Malefor, but the one she must not attack came as well. They leaned upon each other, and Katana knew they had spent the night together because their smells had mixed and they smelled as one, though Katana detected no adrenaline or sweat, even if she strained her nose, and thus knew nothing had passed between them except companionship.

At last the two black ones and the legendary one arrived. The two black ones stayed at a distance, but the Legendary one, the one whom called himself Spyro strode to the edge of the cliff, and sat down next to her. The glowing one of sharp wit was settled in his horn, also looking out over the horizon.

"Not the end."

"No, it is not. It is the beginning."


	14. Chapter 14

"I don't like this Spyro. Not one bit." Cynder hissed into his ear as he led their small group through the tropical jungle of the island. Spyro spotted a camp fire ahead, and slowed to a crawl, his retracted claws and soft pads making no noise in the underbrush. The men wore sullen expressions as they looked into the flames, as did the two cheetahs and the lone dragon sitting there.

Finally as they edged around towards the sea, Spyro turned his eyes away and crept towards the gentle roar of the waves. When they were a safe distance away, Spyro answered Cynder with what was halfway between a mumble and a low growl.

"I don't either, but we've no choice. I want to know why Malefor left the moon. I know he knows that we know that he's gone."

"What?" Frost hissed behind him. Nova chuckled behind her.

"It makes sense Frost, if you actually think about it." She ducked Frost's subsequent swipe. Ezio caught it instead, and went flying, and because Frost was flung off bal;ance by her swing, she ended up on top of him. The purple dragon smiled and looked at Frost.

"I originally thought that it would be Nova in this spot, and not you." Blaze emitted a bark of laughter that Spyro had to hush up with a paw to his mouth. Ezio didn't get a chance to laugh as both females punched him one ofter the other, though Nova was smiling.

"If you four are quite done?" Spyro hissed harshly, "Were trying to get away without being detected, not let the entire sphere know."

"Sorry Spyro, go ahead and make the portal." Nova said quietly. Spyro turned towards the sea and clapped his hands together. There was a dim burst of light in his palms, and as he stretch his paws outwards, the light also expanded, until the glowing disk was big enough to accommodate even Blaze.

"One at a time, I didn't put much energy in, to keep the glow down, so it can only be done one at a time." Cynder went first, and then the rest f the dragons proceeded through. Spyro himself was about to step through his own portal when a clear voice broke out behind him.

"They won't blame you you know." The purple dragon whipped around to find Katana standing there with two other dragons, one a mix of a light blue and spider-webbing yellow that shimmered with neon energy, whom Spyro was sure was a lightning dragon, and the other a dark tan with mottled green, and lumps of what looked like cluster crystals along his back and as horns. The dragon looked much heavier than he actually was, and Spyro was sure this one was an earth dragon.

"Why are you here?"

"The news of Malefor's absence has already spread through the camp, despite you trying to keep the news secret. Don't ask me how it happened, it just has. If people find out you've left them for earth, they won't blame you." She said, ignoring his question. The two other dragons flanked her on either side, both of them looming over her with their increased age. Spyro would have guessed they were his age, though the earth dragon looked to be a bit older.

"And what of it."

"Many think that it'll only be the dragons who pull this war off. It's only them whom weld magical abilities. Really even the siege was a ruse in my opinion, for you to get close to Malefor. That was doomed really when you were knocked out. Now everyone just wants to go home, but they all know they can't. So they all seem content to stay here, in my domain." She said, looking around at her island.

"I'm more worried of the shadow forces finding them here."

"We can take care of ourselves." The four turned to see Lancer also walking out of the trees. Katana looked venomous.

"How did you know where we were?" She asked sharply.

"I used my head. When I heard of Malefore's absence, I figured you'd want to chase after him Spyro. You've got an F-35 about fifty miles off the coast with an AMRAAM missile locked onto that portal." Spyro looked unconcerned, "Your lucky I stopped the pilot from firing, I thought it might be you. I came as fast as I could."

"Does the captain know?"

"No."

"Good, let him know, but have him keep it a secret. Tell everyone else were off on a deep scouting mission for our next attack if you have too. Now why are you here? And who's your friends?"

Katana smiled, "This is Ion, and Brooklyn." Volt saluted Spyro with his wing, but Brooklyn merely nodded, in a direction about ten feet to the left of Spyro, "No Brooklyn, stone head, a little bit to your left. Sorry Spyro, he's blind when he's not using his element, but when he is he's got betetr sight than anyone. It's how he found me. I just wasn't able to shake Volt off when I tried to tail you, so I let him come along, and surprisingly, he's very good with his element. He was able to sense you just by the fact that you were an electric dragon, and you give off a slight magnetic field."

"No." Spyro stated.

"What?"

"I said no. Your not coming with us." Spyro stated again, a grim expression on his face.

"Oh? And what makes you think you have a choice in the matter. By the time you even begin to turn around, I can be through that portal. Heck all three of us can - "

"Lancer, make sure the force stays put till we return. You have my command in my stead."

"You honor me."

"No, I trust you. May the ancestors watch over you." Spyro then turned to Katana, and activating his time power at the same time, nodded at Katana then dove backwards through the portal. He felt a drop in his strength, but thought that it was his own body disturbing the portal. Least he thought that till he saw three pairs of feet one dark tan, one light blue, and one pure white in his vision upside down, and an explosive fit of swearing and voices that argued back and forth.

_By my ancestors she can move!_

That was the first time Spyro realized just how good Katana was. For her to even beat him to the portal, she must have had to slow time down to the greatest of crawls for three dragons to approach the portal and edge through.

"Did he or did he not give you permission?"

"Damnit, no I didn't!" Spyro flipped over and stood up, brushing himself off, "Katana, I told you you weren't allowed to come!"

"And I told you you didn't have a choice in the matter!"

_How can a youngling be this stubborn? I'm sure I wasn't like that at her age._

"Just let them Spyro..." Ezio murmured.

"You would rather put their lives in danger?" Spyro nearly shouted turning to the purple dragon.

"No, but what are you going to do about it?" Spyro held his mouth open as he tried to think of an answer, but when he couldn't he clamped his lips together and jerked his head.

"Lets see if you guys remember the old days. We need to have organization, and we need a plan." Spyro then turned to the group, "Cynder? Round them up."

"Group! Form up! Come on double time!" Nova jumped from Ezio's side, the rest of the group jumping into their designated spots, and sitting at attention. Ion and Brooklyn waited until they saw gaps then jumped in as well. Spyro smiled when they took places.

"Other way around guys." The two quickly switched, "Cynder? Colors."

"PRE-sent colors!"

The group as one saluted with their wings, holding the position so that the wings looked like a group of flags representing their respective elements. Spyro walked down the front of the line, Cynder trailing him off to the side, as Ezio and Katana watched from the side. Spyro paused in front of Brooklyn, looking the earth dragon up and down.

"Katana said you were quite adept at your element."

"Yes sir, I do pride myself in my control. If I weren't good at it I wouldn't be able to see." He said quietly. He didn't seem like the quiet type, more calm and composed. Ezio nearly laughed when he saw Frost next to him look at of the corner of her eye and raise an eyebrow at his statement. He himself could hardly believe this dragon was blind. But then he noticed the tiny scars over his eyes.

"You bare the marks of war, Brooklyn."

"I've seen my fair share of battle sir." He said darkly. Ezio realized just then how old the dragon actually was. Spyro must have had the same idea.

"How old are you Brooklyn?" The earth dragon grinned.

"37 sir." Ezio was surprised.

"You don't act your age."

"I've also seen my share of hardship sir. It's the same thing with you, except I've been through more of it." Brooklyn responded quietly, "It has hardened me and taught me much about civilization."

"What of your personal life?"

"I have a mate and a single clutch of three younglings." He said almost inaudibly.

"She a pretty girl?" Spyro asked almost as quietly.

"As pretty as the sunset over the ocean sir. And the perfect mate." He said. Spyro pressed no further, nodded, and moved on to Ion, whom fidgeted uncomfortably.

"What of you Ion? Whats your age?"

"19 sir."

"So your quite young then. How adept in your element are you? You must have been good enough to track me, which is an achievement and a half. Your young, so until you gain some experience, I want you to stick close to one of us, and no matter how much you might disagree with one of us, you must obey our orders." He turned towards Brooklyn, "Both of you."

"Aye sir!" They both intoned. Spyro walked away then and went to the center of the line and turned to face them, Cynder beside and slightly behind him.

"This isn't war, dragon's and dragoness's. This right now is a blood feud. We might not act as such, but Malefor will..."

* * *

The dragon in question was currently approaching a tiny Island out off the southern coast of South America, a tiny place that is beaten by the sea and wind so much, no plants grow upon it. The cliff faces are near vertical, with very little to no handholds. At the Top there was a cave, open to the sky, with high walls, and an opening so narrow, no aircraft could reach it, nor could even a parachutist land in it. The Island is surrounded by so many sharp rocks, that no sea vessel has been able to get close to it, and because of the extremely smooth cliff faces, the wind was so strong and turbulent, not a single chopper could get near it.

Rain beat upon Malefor's face in a steady rhythm as he wound his way towards the citadel, his wings beating wildly against the gail.

"We don't know what Malefor is up to, but whatever it is, it can't be good for us. Me and Cynder have made many speculations as to why he's returned to earth, but none have made sense." Spyro continued.

"However, just because I've assembled you in the old fashion doesn't mean I'm going to treat you like the old Alpha Squadron. Those days are long gone. This has gone from being a mission to a quest, and thus, if your lives come under danger, you are to run as fast as you can. Don't stop, don't hide, run. If me Cynder and Ezio go down in battle, you are the ones responsible to carry out our future, and our plans."

"What if he intends to destroy the planet, Sir?"

Malefor circled above the cave, getting progressively closer tot he opening. As he drew closer the winds increased in their vigor, till he was right next to the mouth and was blocked by what felt like a solid roaring hurricane. If it wasn't for his elements, he would have been dead long ago. Finally, after shoving himself about for a while, he finally felt his foot contact the edge of the cave hard. Latching on as best he could, he dragged himself through the barrier of wind, and then fell flat on the floor, the wind having died down instantly. It was nearly silent inside the cave.

"We don't think he will Nova. The planet itself poses no threat to him. We believe there may be something here of intensely personal meaning to him."

The dark master slowly made a circuit of the cave, examining the walls. The faces were covered in both arcane runes and a very wild but very vivid detail of a certain event. The panels of the chronicle showed the very Island he was on, although it wasn't an Island then, but a mountain. Beneath it, Malefor was able to discern in the language of the ancients the title "Well of Souls". The next panel showed a group of four dragons, surrounding a fifth dragon, a purple one bearing a striking resemblance to himself. The foremost of the outer four dragons was a deep red, indicating his fire element. Malefor paused with his paw rubbing slowly over his image, and then the red dragons. The next panel showed the remaining outer dragons, but in Malefor's place was what appeared to be a bright light. The last image was of two purple dragons facing off, one that again looked like Malefor, and the other much smaller, although entering his prime. The two were above a field of violent battlefield, and energy shot from both of the dragons' palms, colliding in the center, and instead of a white light this time, it was pitch black.

"So where do we start?"

It seemed that whomever had created this image had focused most of his considerable time on the black light. It was the most disconcerting light the Dark Master had ever seen, a light that seemed to give off all light, and yet absorb all light at the same time. A light that held a bottomless abyss from which no one could escape.

Malefor shuddered. Then he turned towards the center of the cave and stood at the small plinth that was present, raising him a bit above everything else in the room. There were four points of scorch marks on the walls. The dark dragon lifted his paw, palm up and used all four of his elements at once, hitting the scorch marks dead on with each element. The floor shuddered and began to move, the outer section of the floor not covered by plinth quartering itself and moving outwards. Spikes suddenly began jutting upwards, starting at the center and moving out in a wave, the highest spikes nearest to the plinth and all of them creating geometrical patterns with their deadly shafts. Then four triangular columns, each with a vaulted cross bar and an archaic structure, shot upwards at four corners of the plinth, as well as four small cups that were big enough for a fist sized sphere each. Runes were carved along the structure, and on the base were several languages, the easiest of which to read was the human one, in plain English, even if it was outdated by several centuries.

It read: Thine Doth Gaze Upon thou Sacred Entrance of Convexity.

"New Warfang." Spyro replied, turning to the multitude of lights within a canyon in the distance.

* * *

"So what now you young whelp? It's not like you wanted this." Smaug sneared at the smaller black dragon, Shadow Force Lieutenant badges upon his shoulder. However, there were five stars added to the emblem, the same as Smaug.

"Whelp eh? I have black suits that are older than you Smaug. I've talked to Malefor directly about this issue, and he says you can keep the responsibility of leading the forces while he's gone, but he wants me there tonight. He wants me to lead his personal guard." The black dragon replied nonchalantly. Smaugs sneer deepened.

"Why did he not choose me for his guard?"

"He thought you a better strategist, although I could match you in that area."

"And what of when he eventually returns?"

"He said we shall have a dual to find out whom shall lead. The other will be killed." Smaug hissed violently and advanced on the smaller dragon, whom seemed unconcerned by the evident danger and was cleaning some dirt out between his Talons.

"Then I should kill you now before you are a threat." Smaug lunged and spun at the same time, aiming for the opposing dragons neck. Faster than the eye could track, the other dragon snagged Smaugs tail between his teeth, twirled him over head, released him straight up into the air, and then jumped up after the surprised squeek from the General. When he was higher than Smaug, he adged over and dve dwn on top, pinning the dagont o the ground when they landed. Shadow poured out of the cracks in the ground, where they had been walking, passing units drawing their weapons, but the dragon on top of Smaug only smiled.

"You naive fool. Did you honestly think you could take on me, he whom is Malefor's right hand man, he whom is as old as the Dark Master himself. Unlike you, I do not shrink from combat, I do not strike dishonorably, and unlike you, I can hold my own, even against tougher foes. I am a hundred times the leader you shall ever be, so why did you think that you could win? If you want my place, then you should take it in the shadow force way. A knife in my back when I'm not looking, in the dead of the night." The dragon said calmly.

"Do you honestly think I'll give up my position to you?"

"No, you'll never accept it, but the Shadow forces will. I am tougher, yet I care about those under my command. Now will you submit, Smaug?"

Smaug was silent for a while. None of his legs or even his head was pinned, and he could have easily thrown the smaller dragon off himself with a heave of his torso, but it appeared that he thought twice about it.

"I will concede you have leadership." He said in a half snarl. The dragon studied him carefully, then nodded.

"That will do." The smaller dragon hopped off him, and as the rest of the surrounding shadow forces saw that they were no longer needed, they sheathed their weapons and continued on their way. Smaug looked at the smaller dragon quietly, whom had returned to cleaning his talons with his rough tongue. Finally, he turned away, but before he walked more than a few paces, he stopped and half turned his head to look back at the new general with one eye.

"You had best watch your back Jeeves."

"I always do, Smaug."


	15. Chapter 15

It took several hours to get down to New Warfang, and by the time Alpha squad and the rest of the dragons reached it the surrounding forest was completely dark. Ezio remembered the first time he had gone this way, following the panthers lead torch. Now he had the senses of a dragon and could see for yards, despite it being pitch black. Finally a glimmer of light cast itself upon them and they followed it forwards till the trees thinned slightly. There Ezio beheld what used to be a sprawling city but was now a fortified establishment. Searchlights scanned the ground where sentries weren't patrolling, and even more guards were posted upon the walls, where little specs of light signaled the torches each one of the shadow dragons held in their wing claws.

Kali materialized next to Ezio, and leaned towards him, whispering where his human ear used to be, but now only contained the filaments that controlled his hearing buried just beneath his skin.

"Every blasted one is at least of captain rank or higher. There's even some majors in there." She hissed. Ezio half turned to her.

"How do you improve in rank?"

"Feats of combat. A lieutenant has to survive five duals, a captain at least ten. The majors have to go through twenty-five before they're even considered. Majors, next to generals whom are hand picked by Malefor, are considered great warriors, or lucky ones." she responded quietly, then snuck off to Spyro's side, and was so silent at relaying the information that it sounded more like a breath of wind.

"Probably go in like Katana did." Ezio mumbled to himself. Spyro crawled over too him and nodded.

"Do you mind scouting it out?"

"Me?"

"Yeah. Take Kali with you as backup. Find out what Malefor's up to and where he's gone."

"Spyro, I -"

"Please? None of the others can do this. Katana could go in gain, but I don't want to put her in harms way more than once, especially since she's so young. Besides the only reason she helped us was because it was her home."

"Alright, alright, fine! Any ideas on how we could get in?"

"Take the sea cave at the far end. That was Ignitus's personal escape tunnel. It should take you directly to his study. Do some asking around tomorrow and see if you can find anything out, then be on the balcony of our old room by midnight."

"I – alright." Ezio motioned to Kali, and the two set off into the dark. Nova watched them intently as they left. Spyro settled down in between Cynder and Nova for the night and looked over at her.

"Don't worry about it, they'll be fine, and if not we'll be there in an instant to help them out."

"I hope your right, Spyro. I'd hate to have to be the death of you." It was no idle threat.

This time the weather in southern France wasn't as warm. The earth was well into fall now, and the dark water they had to swim through reflected that. Ezio ran a claw through it and felt the chill run up his arm.

"Come on Ez, it's not going to get any warmed." Kali said, then suddenly leapt high and dived in. She sent a wave at him as she re-surfaced. Ezio avoided it though.

"Just making sure so the shock doesn't kill me."

"Best to do it all at once." Ezio nodded, then leaned forwards and somersaulted into the water. He came back up shivering his tail off.

"It's a lot colder than I first thought..." Kali laughed and flipped head over heals and headed around the small bay to the far side, Ezio following her. As they approached the entrance for the underwater escape tunnel, the two dipped under. The opening was large, big enough to let them through easily. When they surfaced on the other side, the ceiling was low and there was no shore. Instead of bringing up a light for the two too see, Ezio instead slowly increased the lighting to an acceptable level before letting them proceed, using a red hue to preserve their night vision. They kept following the tunnel, finally coming to a small shore, where two shadow lieutenants were standing guard.

Ezio stopped a ways from them. They were talking a short ways away, so Ezio made sure they were out of hearing range, then motioned to Kali to surface. The broke silently, slowly sliding out of the water. Kali glanced at them, and Ezio in nearly a whisper spoke to her.

"We're beyond visual range, there's still not much light, and they've ruined their night vision with their lantern." he motioned towards the one holding the lantern with the shutter half opened. The two were arguing over something.

"I'll take the one on the left, you take - "

"No, we can't hit them, what we need to do is sneak past..."

"A, that's not possible, and B, they're shadow forces."

"Yes, but one, it is possible if we do it right, and two, they can raise the alarm, even if they themselves don't directly do so. We need time to find what were looking for. If we use our elements and move slowly, we should be fine. Sneak along the outside wall, or try the ceiling. I'll just bend light around me."

"If we fail, we kill them, grab what we can, then retreat," she replied shortly.

"Deal."

Ezio held his breath, and they both dived back under. As they approached the shore, both of them slid out of the water and gripped the sides of the tunnel. Kali simply sunk out of view, and Ezio's form shimmered then disappeared, leaving nothing but the faintest of outlines to show his position. As they approached, Ezio again sucked in his breath and held it, and crouched low, leaping lightly to the ceiling and gripping it hard. He crouched low, and slowly began to move over over the two lieutenants, lifting his tail up to keep it out of their faces. His back was nearly brushing one of them. Suddenly, his claws dug into bedrock, and several pebbles fell right onto the dragons nose. The two started, and one of them looked up quizzically.

"What the hell?" One of them whispered to themselves. He stretched upwards, claws outstretched, searching for the source of the disturbance. Ezio leaned to the side, shying away from the inevitable contact. The shadow's claws came within half an inch of his skin before they hit the rock, and showered him again with pebbles.

"Ah, damnit." He said under his breath.

"Hehe, why'd you do that?"

"Didn't mean to, I thought I saw something." He said quietly, then turned back to his friend. They turned back to their previous conversation.

What they were talking about after that is best left unsaid...

Ezio moved forwards two more feet, and then using his gravity element, leapt downwards and back behind the two, silencing his landing, both by crouching on impact, and lessening it with the gravity element. He snuck through the curtain behind the two, and saw Kali materializing in the darkness. Motioning with his paw, he beckoned her into the darkness.

When they were finally out of earshot, Kali turned to him and whispered, "Ezio breathe, or your going to pass out."

Ezio released his pent up breathe then, and realized that the room had been spinning, "Sorry, that was just close."

"Now comes the easier part. Were inside, so we might as well get down to business."

"Right, Ignitus's study. This way." He said, his element changing his color to pitch black, and splashing a shadow forces Captain's emblem on his shoulders and wings.

Despite the cold, Frost felt incredibly warm, snuggled up next to one fire, and facing another. She could hear the waves pounding against the beach in the background, and it and the steady sound of Blaze's breathing had nearly lulled her to sleep. Out in the distance, she could see Nova standing right at the shore, a faint glow emanating form her body. Blaze had been watching her intently.

"They really love each other, don't they?" He said suddenly. His voice was very quiet this time, no hint of sarcasm, or joking left.

"Duh..."

"No honestly though, when you first met either of them, did you think that..."

"That they'd end up together? Blaze, are you daft?"

"Huh?"

"Hehe, no, of course not, but then we never really know anyone, do we? In all honesty, I never thought Nova would find someone, I thought with her restless spirit, that she wouldn't be content. And Ezio seemed, well, young, new to the world."

"Do you think he still is?"

It took a while for her to answer, but she did answer, and that does count for something...

"No. In fact he never was. I think the image of naivety came from first impressions combined with his heritage, but he's as much of a brawler as any of us."

"And Nova LIKES this brawler personality?"

"The roughness around the edges? The cunning mind and sharp wit? The slightest of ladies men attitude? And if he doesn't have a restless soul, I wouldn't know who does. He's good looking too. Honestly, if a girl DIDN'T like him, then I'd be worried. Although the way she's acting right now, their a bit closer than I thought." She casted a glance towards the dragoness, whom now had a leg lifted, as if she were ready to leap into action at a moments notice, and her eyes were so focused it looked as if nothing but the open air and the sea and what lay beyond was more important to her than her next breath.

"You sound like you like him a bit too."

"He's grown on me, but only as a friend. Even still, when you first met her, did you think Nova was the type to fall in love?"

"Hmm? No, I suppose not..." Frost was going to leave it at that, but Blaze, feeling emboldened by the warm air, and the romantic scene, pushed onwards, "Just like you."

An edge crept into Frost's voice, "You do realize - "

"Oh come on Frost! Your an awesome girl, and it's not like insensitive, I'm a good friend, but I'm an even better lover." That was the ticket for Frost. She quickly got up, stepping away from Blaze and turned towards him. Despite giving him her most menacing look though, he didn't run away, or even cower, he simply just returned her glare.

That rather impressed her...

She still smacked him though...

"Ah damnit Frost! Why not?"

"Because of our ages? Because of our upbringings and personalities? Because one of us at least has a sense of dignity?" She stated them off.

"Age is hardly an argument. I've dated girls before at least five years older than I. Upbringings and personality can be overcome. No ones perfect, and you know that. The only reason you don't want to try is cause it's me. And there's other factors as well, but mostly it's me. I don't know if you've noticed Frost, but I'm not the dragon I used to be. I've lost too much." It was then Frost realized just how much Blaze HAD lost. Family, friends, even a mate. Frost had a split second pang of pity, but then wrestled it into submission and buried it. She knew she wouldn't want that emotion directed at her.

"Damnit Blaze, you can't I stay mad at you? Why am I even your friend?"

"Cause I'm awesome." Frost laughed at that.

"I suppose your right, I just kind of freaked when you said 'Lover'." She said, settling back down, albeit a little further away from the fire dragon, "Just make sure you keep your mind away from your crotch."

"Man, lookit all of this!"

"Come on Ez, we gotta hurry up. Look for anything out of the ordinary."

"Well look at the titles! It's all out of the ordinary. It's all intellectual, religious, and ancient mythological books. What's this one? Relics of the Dark and Mysterious? What WAS Ignitus trying to do?"

"That one does sound interesting, pull it down."

Ezio yanked the book off the shelf and tossed it on the floor. The plan was, find out what Ignitus had in his library, as that was the most likely place Malefor would do his studying. Find out what he had researched whilst coming here.

He HAD been here too, and had stayed cooped up in here for several days before he had journeyed off alone. The only contact he had had was with the General in charge to send for reinforcements, to join him on the east coast of America. Kali had been able to wrest that much out of the male, as she had seniority even higher than him, being one of Malefor's pet projects. He had no idea Kali was no longer under Malefor's control. Ezio had simply used his light element to disguise himself, he didn't even look like he used to.

Well, to everyone else he didn't. He looked like a Shadow Force general now. All he had to do was keep quiet when Kali was talking and salute anyone superior to himself.

He hated that last part. It had been his upbringing to consider none superior to himself, no matter their rank.

The pile of books steadily grew higher. They had to weed out some of the unlikely ones, to keep the stack small, so they could carry them easily without being conspicuous. The range of topics were wide and varied, from modern novels to books on ancient works of art, but no matter what, one subject was prevalent; they all dealt with the supernatural.

Just as the sun was beginning to set, Ezio got a chill up his spine.

"Kali. It's time to go." She turned towards the horizon and jumped.

"Your right, we should have been gone ages ago. I asked the General for your old quarters, from what you said, so we should be good, so grab the books and we'll get moving." They scrabbled about, stuffing books into a bag for the next minute, and then darted from the room, throwing the lock back into place. About three steps later, the general himself rounded the corner. He didn't do much only let Ezio salute, and then saluted Kali, and continued on his way.

Ezio suppressed a chill, and then followed Kali through the compound. The city-turned-fortress had been changed to a massive degree since the months they had lived there. No more were the friendly glow stones that lit the path, or the deep red tapestries hung from every door way. The absence of laughing children of all species and the smell of cooking meals seemed almost perverse to Ezio. The only thing he heard was the gentle murmur of sullen soldiers, the crackle of a large fire where the shadow dragons crowded around for warmth, and the subtle sound of gunfire from the range up the canyon.

Ezio didn't like this new military city, but he knew it represented everything he had seen and done in the last six months. He could relate. It was still a city, just as he was still Ezio, but it had been ridiculously and profoundly changed by one creature...

Their room was the same way. The table was gone, as were the comfortable cushions that lined the sleeping bowls, and the shower only had ice cold water.

Ezio dragged his now tired body over to one of the bowls, yawned and grabbed the bags, pulling a book out of it and opening to the first page. The idea was to skim the books, and get as much information as possible. Kali did likewise, and they were soon buried in different Texts, with the sun having set at last they had to read by firelight. It was desperately dull, and Ezio soon found himself lulling into a haze of sleepiness, despite the discomfort of the bowl.

"Ezio, you've been staring at the same book for two hours now."

"Hmm? OH!" Ezio forced himself ot look back into his book, but Kali chuckled.

"Ease up Ez, it's not like it's going to be the end of the world."

"Uh, yes it is!"

"I know, I was joking." Ezio opened his mouth to reply, but didn't know exactly how to reply, so he just bit his tongue and returned to the book. The words just gave him a vague idea of what is was like to have his head wrenched in two.

"Ah, this is ridiculous, I'm trying to do something that should have never been done. These books are horrible. I'm not asking for a plot or anything, I'm just hoping that I'll find something that doesn't sound like a droning teachers science lecture."

"Try a different book then, I'll take that one."

"Deal." Ezio said, sliding the text to her, and reaching into the bags for a new one. Ezio felt his claw catch on some clothe and he pulled it out, along with a book. It was the first book Ezio had picked up that day, Relics of the Dark and Mysterious. The small clothe was rough burlap, serving as a bookmark.

"Hey Kali, check this out."

"Hmm?"

"This one looks different than all the others." Ezio didn't know if it was just him, but the book, here in the candle-light, looked ancient, rough beyond all measure. Ezio ran his claws over it, and the surface felt smooth.

"What the?"

"Bingo, it's got an enchanted cover. This must have been Ignitus's more treasured books, if he protected it with an enchantment." Ezio opened the front cover. In it were two messages, the first by Ignitus in a scrawling hurried penmanship. Ezio read it aloud.

"To those whom come across this message, whether welcome eyes or not:

If you are reading this, my time is nigh, and I shall have passed into the void by the time you are done. This book was one of my most treasured possessions, thus if you are reading it without trouble, you are an ally, and that would mean that these words inclosed were meant for you. If you cannot read this, then it would be best for you to turn around and walk out of my study, for it is not a place meant for mortals.

If you broke the enchantments, then good luck with your quests, and I pray with all mine heart to the ancestors that they will find favor in your soul when you stand before them in the ether beyond the veil. For this book was not meant for those with ill intentions, nor was it meant as a tool to my allies, but as a warning: these are the deepest, darkest, secrets man could fathom without ripping apart the very fabric of magic. Most of them are not understood, we who study all of this just know they work. Thus, be wary traveler, and may we meet in favorable conditions in the Ancient's great hall."

"Whats the second one?" Kali asked, with her voice now hushed.

"It's from Malefor, and it reads: I am Lord Malefor, and Thou Shalt Fear Mine Name." Ezio had to shiver this time, "This is it."

"Yup, it's gotta be." Ezio traced a claw down the table of contents, "Whats that one? 'The tools of Lucifer.'?"

"I don't like the sound of that. These are hideously fiendish. It talks about some of the tools I've only heard of in ancient legends. Look, here's a chapter titled 'Death's Reaper' the 'D' is capitalized, as in a name. It describes the thing as something that causes instant death to those that come in contact with the blade, harvesting the soul of said victim. And from what I can tell, it's being literal. The author isn't fooling about with this. Look here's a chapter on the holy grail. There's others too, like the Aegis, Poseidon's Trident, The Ark of the Covenant, etc. et – hang on, whats this one? This is the bookmarked page. The Lance of Longinus."

"The what?"

"No, no, it's supposed to be a christian relic. It is stated in the gospel of John. The tradition was to break prisoners legs to speed up the process of crucifiction, but when they saw the lord was dead, one of them soldiers, Longinus by name, pierced his side with his spear, and both blood and water ran down it's length. As far as I know, it's not supposed to hold any power though."

"Well go on, read it." Ezio flipped to the page, and was startled too see notes of all types along the sides, in Ignitus's handwriting, such as "Hilt location possibly discovered, eroded metal bares resemblance to spears from the first century. Roman crest possibly engraved upon the haft, bird-like in resemblance, team sent to investigate.".

"Um, ok. The Lance of Longinus, or the Holy Lance, is said to be the Lance that pierced christ's side at cavalry. Historians believed this relic to be long gone, or perhaps eroded away by time, or even more likely smelted down to make a new weapon, but we from the Knights know better. By far, this relic isn't some fanciful weapon, but is real. The weapon used to pierce Christ's side would have been preferably magically imbued with powers beyond even the wildest imagination. My brethren and I have been able to decipher the glyphs upon the tip, and the supposed hilt, just behind the wide tip. Comparing the weapon to ancient Roman weaponry, this weapon dates back far further than even humans have been recorded." The paragraph then ended with a Spear, headed by a massive blade that was at least as long as Ezio's fore-arm which was decorated with that of a dragon, spreading it's wings towards the horizon, and roaring with all it's might towards the tip, as if ready to consume it's next victim. The spear was backed by a featureless landscape, nothing but stars in the background. The image was depicted with such clarity that it made Ezio shuddered, it seemed as if the dragon would leap out of the page at any moment and start breathing fire.

"Go on."

"Both parts of the weapon were imbued with magical powers, both of which we could detect. The first, and most basic, was the foregrip, just behind the blade, which held a spell of concealment. At the slightest demand, the user could become invisible, yet still attack, and all the powers would still function as normal this alone should have been enough.

The second was the haft, the hind-grip, which contained a spell of invincibility, and protected the user from all powers, even those of the divine. We in the Knights wonder if this could be used to view the contents of the holy ark.

The third is the shaft, which gave the user supernatural strength. He whom welded this piece could lift a mountain with naught but shifting a muscle.

The forth, and most sinister piece, is the blade. The blade in and of itself not just causes death, but destruction to ones soul. A horrid fate, the soul would remain within the welder, and most likely, would never be seen again. Only one man is known to have survived this, and he was holy, divinity if it ever existed on this earth, Christ the lord.

The effects are said to be reversible, but no one has veer been willing to test this theory, nor does anyone know how. It is said that having the completed staff is holding all the power of creation in your hands.

There are other attributes, for instance, a great power could theoretically control a single piece. However, it is known that the Spear is difficult to control without all four pieces assembled. We currently have no such power though to control any single element. However, each piece is so powerful tat it has some residual effects, even if un-powered. You can also reduce the effects if you reduce the amount of power. For instance, we use a steam generator to power the only piece we currently have control over, the fore-grip, which has allowed our group to stay hidden for so long essentially.

We know not the origins of this device, but what we do know is that it should never be used on any man. Many people have tried to assemble the device, mainly rulers kings and tyrants, but without fail, those whom did had very unpleasant deaths. Even the first known recorded holder, Augustus Caesar, claiming he himself was God of all, had that of an unpleasant death. Upon the phrase "I am God" left his lips, his balcony did crumble, he dropped the holy lance, and he was consumed alive by the worms of the earth.

Fitting for the lowest creatures to consume the greatest of beings, isn't it? God indeed." Ezio finished, shutting the book. He tapped the cover though, "One thing though. This part right here, about the blade is the only spot that's circled. If this device was created by the ancestors."

"Ezio, hang on. When Malefor was exiled, he fought back, and thus, the Ancestors prayed to the Ancient for help, and he delivered. And thus, they trapped Malefor in convexity."

"What're you saying?"

"What if this was used on him. Technically, you need some place to hold those souls."

"Then how would that explain anything? It could just be a metaphor for a spell or something."

"Have you ever talked to Cynder before? I'm sure she could tell you, she's the one whom helped free the bastard."

"Yeah, we've talked. She said she used power from the four guardians to power something Malefor refereed to as "The tip of the Spear". He could have meant the holy lance. But if that's so - "

"Ezio, thats it! No one dragon could power the spear, but four of them could. Spyro mentioned a machine, buried within a mountain code-named "The well of souls" it all fits! That's where the tip is!"

"If that's so, then how'r we supposed to beat Malefor? He could have reached the blade by now!" Kali didn't respond. He turned to her, and saw her staring intently at the darkness right behind Ezio, "What?"

A flash of teeth, a sudden gasp from Kali, and then Ezio felt cold steel pressed against his neck.

"It's far worse than that young fool..."


	16. Chapter 16

"Damnit, why won't they respond?"

"Wait a bit more Nova..."

Nova stood on one foot, then another, adjusting her stance, then set back down and raise her paw again, flashing a soft greeting signal. She waited a minute, but there was no return greeting. The sun was starting to glow in the eastern horizon as the first vestiges of morning came along.

"This isn't good." Spyro said.

"Something must have happened to them! They had to have been captured, or something like that!" Nova began to freak out suddenly.

"Ease up Nova, we'll help them. I'm just worried about how were going to do that. We haven't got enough to change that." Spyro said, rubbing the horn under his chin, "We need about triple the force we have right now, and that's an issue."

"Well were are we going to find two full squads of warriors?" The two stared at each other contemplating the question, when all of a sudden, a voice broke out.

"The answer may be closer than you think lass!" Spyro didn't hesitate, there was a streak of convexity, a shout, and then violent swearing.

"GODDAMNED PURPLE DRAGONS!" Nova didn't know whether to laugh or cry or do both, or leap on the gravity dragon cowering beneath where the beam had burnt a hole in the tree he had been standing in front of. But that wasn't the only thing. As her eyes readjusted from the convexity's light, she didn't see just Bane, but a ton of dragons, all hiding in the brush. Nova got off from on top of Spyro, whom was seen clutching his heart, and gasping heavily from the surprise and following adrenaline rush. He was both chuckling and silently swearing under his breath.

"Damnit. Sorry Bane, but you could have announced yourself a little less suddenly." Spyro said, rolling to his feet.

"I've learned me lesson. You should look before you leap."

"It's a weakness, but it's kept me alive sometimes." Spyro said, also letting his eyes adjust by placing a paw over them. When he looked around again, his jaw dropped.

"Did you bring the entire blasted force with you?"

"Nay, just the dragons, and a few human friends." He said. Behind him were what amounted to at least fifty dragons. Beam and Photon were among them. Many Nova had never even spoken to, and some she didn't even know their names. The un-named wind dragoness from the airship from what seemed like ages ago was there. And the most surprising thing was that even Zeus was there. He was the next person to approach Spyro, tail drooped and head hung low.

"I deffer to your leadership. But I just want you to know, these are my people, from my time. If any one of them is harmed because of incompetence, I'll have your head, even if it means my own life. I was chosen because of my power, not because of my knowledge in combat. I've seen my fair share of fights, but nothing of this scale. My position was not one that I wanted, nor have I done spectacular in it, but like every other leader, I do not want to see the demise of any subjects by my, or anyone else's, claws."

Spyro, amazingly, found new-found respect instantly there for the young dragon. It surprised him, but not nearly as much as the next surprise. A female, of the same hide appeared next to him then, and despite being somewhat attracted to Cynder, Spyro couldn't help but notice that this dragoness was incredibly beautiful.

"You'll have to excuse my brother, mighty one. He can be incredibly arrogant during war times, but it's only because sometimes it's needed to control his subjects and advisers." She said with an air of an Italian accent. Spyro smiled and nodded.

"Your name?"

"Hestia. When my brother has other affairs, then I control the various dragon held lands." She said. Unlike her brother, she did exude a faint air of power. Spyro could also detect a much better underlying flow of Convexity, showing a much greater knowledge of the element. As far as Spyro could tell, she was slightly more powerful than himself.

"I still might find a place for you yet." He said. He looked up then, and addressed the group as a whole.

"Listen to me! All of you!" He declared, reminding himself of Ignitus. He had a sudden upwelling of nostalgia, but suppressed it quickly. He knew where those feelings led, "This isn't the final battle, but it is a turning point! For most of this war, we have been on the defensive, always running, always watching our back! Now we have a comrade in there! And I'll be damned if I leave him there! However, for you, this battle isn't about him! It's about you, your families, your children! For the first time ever, we can see a bright spot. For the first time ever, we aren't outnumbered ten to one! For the first time ever, we shall be the ones to go on the defensive! For the first time ever in this war..."

Now every eye was on him, even the members from Alpha squadron. Cynder's eyes shown especially bright in the darkness surrounding them. Behind himself, he could feel the warm rays of the rising sun, and he felt a certain finality as he knew this was a new day, and possibly a new tail...

"We shall be victorious!" And with that phrase, resounding cheers echoed throughout the clearing. In the back, Cynder gave him a warm smile. Something she hadn't done since they had had victory the first time against Malefor. He felt the warmest shiver run from the point of his nose to the very tip of his tail. For some reason, this time, would be different. This time, the plan he had been working on would work.

Cynder smiled as her commander and her mate walked away with Zeus and her sister, as well as Katana, whom had joined them, probably to talk battle plans.

"Now that's the Spyro I know and love."

Ezio woke with a start. However, even after he woke, he wasn't really sure he was awake.

"Hello?" His voice echoed nearly indefinitely into the distance.

"Hello?" Still no response.

"Am I dead?" He asked himself. And this time, a voice responded.

"Oh your not dead. Not yet your not. But by the time I'm done with you, you'll wish you were." Malefor. Of course. This meant his situation was very very bad. Suddenly, a violent hot pain screamed across his back, as if he had been whipped. This was far worse than he imagined though. He didn't feel his skin break, or any blood flow, but it felt as if his bones were on fire, as if his marrow had been turned into molten glass. His muscles felt like they were popping and straining repeatedly, ripping his skin. His blood felt as if it were boiling. The attack left him drained and worn.

"OK, so what do you want?"

"I want Them." Malefor said mysteriously. Spyro and Cynder. More importantly, Nova. Another lance of pain drove across his back, this time slower. The time it took was agony. Then he realized their plan. The new interrogation technics were thought of as state of the art, but he remembered his training now. Far more effective to cause more pain than a man can bare. Not only was the pain going to get worse, but it would also last longer.

"Good luck."

"Oh, if you want to tell me, it'll make my job easier, but I know that they'll come to me, just because of you."

"Like I said, good luck." Another shot of pain. They kept coming from different places. There was something missing from this though. Something that made this a Malefor interrogation...

"Actually, they already came, a surprise attack on the same tunnel you used. Spyro and Cynder were able to escape, barely, but that pathetic runt, Nova. Hehe, well, they'll be cleaning up her remains for weeks. Should make good food for my 'Projects' maybe I'll slip a bit into your IV supply."

There it was. Least he was prepared for this one. Now he had to find a flaw, to search the validity of the arguments.

The attack was obvious, Kali and Ezio having used it. He'd also use that, to keep it basic. It could be easily defended, as if a battle were to take place, it would be a fish in a barrel scenario.

However, one thing WAS missing. Why he was still being kept alive. Spyro and Cynder obviously thought him in here. Why keep him when Ezio had the option of breaking out? There were two explanations. One was Malefor really did want something. If he did, then Nova was dead, and he was better off with the same fate. If not, which he had already stated, then he knew they'd be coming.

"I don't believe you."

"Of course not. But you must realize Ezio, where you are, you have no clue. You could be at the core of the planet for all you know, or with my teleporting, anywhere in the universe. You have no way to escape, as you are completely restrained, and we have nothing to do but whittle away the hours while I slowly draw you closer to insanity.

Ezio had to admit, he was right.

He still didn't believe that snake though.

"What makes you think you'll be victorious this time Ezio? Victory has never favored your side."

"Because this time feels different."

Katana took her post on the hill, silently nodding to Ion whom had been watching the quiet fortress. Watch duties were better now with more people helping them. They only lasted for two hours now, and it meant an adequate amount of sleep. She had been watching for the better part of an hour now, dividing the mountainous countryside beneath her into sections. She had surveyed the area before and gathered intel on the ranges, and thus was accurately able to make a guess on how far out she'd have to fly if something threatened them. Her time element couldn't be used to hurt anyone, but she could use it to fly faster than any bullet could.

Suddenly, there was a rustle in the bushes behind her. Slowing time down she whirled on the intruder coming up the hill, but saw that it was only Spyro. Letting her element rest a bit, she let time resume it's course and the purple dragon walk up the hill.

"Try not to cut my head off next time please." He said, smiling and drawing abreast of the smaller female. He sat down at the top of the hill and also surveyed the land.

"You knew." It was not a question.

"I know a lot of things, but only through careful observation and steady firm logic. For instance, I know that earlier today you went out and gathered information on the ranges from our camp to the base of their fortress using your time element. Very ingenious. But what you failed to notice is this: by doing so, you were confident that there were no patrols looking for us." He said, looking out over the hills.

"And there are?" She said, also turning and staring out over the hills.

"Oh yes, but you won't see any of them. You forget our enemies. Shadow dragons have a natural ability too see clearly on all but the darkest of nights. That's how I know." He answered, looking over next to him at the younger female.

"Cynder. And I'll bet you probably got the ranges from Nova too?" She asked, glancing at him as well.

"Naturally. You could have simply asked her. Don't worry, I might not see them either, but I know where every single one has bunked for the night, and I know their ranges. I've also posted Cynder in one of the taller trees. She's set up a counter-intel group of shadow dragons, and they seem most adept at their craft. I already have information on all those new defenses. We're in for one hell of a fight tomorrow." He said, breathing deeply.

"I'm guessing you didn't come up here to reprimand me." Again, not a question.

"Katana, I'm in a bit of a not. On one hand, I want us to win, but on the other hand, I don't want to push Cynder away. There are many dragons whom don't have a leader, and I need someone for them to rally behind. I - "

"You need someone to lead Alpha Squadron. Specifically, me."

"There is no one out there with better qualifications then you. This is something I wouldn't ask of any other person, so I'm more really begging. And I've also begun to trust you." He said, looking up at the moon letting the wind run across his face, and listening to the distant roar of the waves.

The quiet solitude of the early morning pervaded the mist that was hanging in the valley. Not much was alive at this hour, all was sleeping. Up on top of the wall, several sentries patrolled the area, their eyes scanning the ground for any movement. They were well disciplined, and had been told the enemy would be coming, so don't let your guard down.

No guard though could prepare it's mind for the pure shock of looking down though, and suddenly seeing a group of earth dragons drawing back the massive pointed boulder, and slamming it into the front gate.

Brooklyn himself heaved back on the massive stone with his power, and slammed it forwards, beating a crack of daylight through the compound. As the sun rose, so did Spyro, rising to te canopy of the forest, and then propelling himself into the clear air, his wings shining through with golden light, with him were all the dragons whom could control convexity, Cynder, Zeus, and his sister, Hestia. The four acted as a unit, as the group moved forwards, pounding on the energy shield. The shield protecting the top of the compound went down, it's security breached. The earth dragons split the stone open at the front, and Frost, followed by a group of Ice dragons jumped out and froze the hinges on the gates, keeping them open, as the first wave flowed into New Warfang, war cries streaming from their lips.

About this time, the sentries finally got the alarm going, alerting everyone that a battle was at hand. The first group of shadow dragons, including the general in charge were the first to come under combat. It was Spyro's group that met him and quickly snuffed his life out with the combined power of four beams of convexity. The shadow forces had been told it would be a small encounter, with no more than seven or eight dragons. What they found themselves up against was a fully fledged army. Artillery from a ship far off shore was pounding into the area, and Alpha squadron suddenly streamed in overhead, F-35's with flaring gun tips for ground attack blazing in the early morning light. Puffs of dirt rose from the ground as the new AGU-10b Grinder cannons opened up and shattered anything in their path.

At last, Alpha squad reformed, and with Katana in the lead, fed into New Warfang, using a delta formation to spread the enemy apart. Blaze was ripping through swaths of shadow dragons as his plasma darts exploded, acting as rocket propelled grenades. Brooklyn kept close by, using stone to the stomach to push the enemy back and box them up. A particularly large explosion split the ground where a group of shadow dragons had been trying to sneek up on Brooklyn form above, where he couldn't see them. He didn't see the explosion either, but he certainly heard it, and he knew where it came from. Turning and throwing the quickest salute he could he roared to Blaze.

"Thank you brother! I'll keep the swarms off you if you keep the enemies off my back!"

"Deal. Drinks are on the person whom has the least kills." Blaze said back with a smile.

"Your on!"

Ion, Frost, and Nova were working in a similar fashion. Nova was blinding the opponents with random strobes of light, protecting her comrades in the same process. Frost would then launch several vollies of Ice along the ground, making it slippery and difficult to walk on, and then ion finished up with a burst of electricity, zapping the dragons until they were dead. Because of the confined spaces, they could only take on three at a time, but because of the confusion they were going through, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Each time Nova heard a sizzle and crackle of energy meant the death of another dragon. Suddenly, almost by accident, Nova spotted a group of heavy cannons on the far ridge. The idea had been to get in through the defenses so the artillery couldn't pound on them.

"Frost! We need to take out the arty on ridge sigma!" Frost stopped for a bit, and peered towards the outer wall. She nodded at Nova, and the three took to the skies, where they were joined by three members from Ariel squadron. Bolts of shadow lanced up at them, but the evading was easy. Suddenly, a chirp pounded in Nova's ear.

"Mistress of light! We need you to guide our bombs in! We can take them all out in one blow!" It was the radio from one of Ariel squad.

"Roger that Ariel unknown, laz going up in three.. two.." Nova flared her wings then, and pointed her palm at the center of the artillery group. She saw three bombs from the jets drop, and lance ahead of the target, glide fins keeping them in line. The jets broke away, and spiraled upwards, powerful engines keeping them aloft. Nova could also see out of the corners of her eye Frost and Ion keeping enemies off her back, while she kept the laser steady. At last, the bright flash and cloud of gas erupted from the bombs as the flew over their target. The gas ignited and went up in a huge fireball, and Nova could feel the concussive blast.

And through all this, not one of them couldn't help but be inspired. Katana knew how to fight, but not only that, she knew how to look good doing it. No shadow dragon could even bring up a defense against her, and when they encountered her, she always used a different fighting tactic than before, to keep her enemies guessing. One moment, she was slamming her hardened elbow into a dragons chin, sending him flying head over heels, never to rise again, and another, she would jump up, using her element to speed her forwards, and then turn and lance back down, exceeding super-luminous velocities, and flying into the dirt, using her body as a massive artillery shell. There was one point where Nova saw her take on a group of five shadow dragons, and take them all down without ever being seen.

She was so good that after this battle, shadow force lieutenants would refer to her as the Phantom...

And as thus, Alpha squadron pushed forwards as one. They knew their objective. Earlier this morning, before the sun had risen, a shadow dragon from Cynder's group had returned with news that Ezio was still alive, and he knew where they were keeping him and Kali. Spyro himself had given the order to each of Alpha Squadrons members. And this time, they reached it.

"Were at the Door Katana! Stop being a bad-ass! We've reached phase line beta!" Katana was at Nova's side instantly, lancing out to hit an enemy, then returning, keeping the shadow force off of their back. When she spoke, her voice was calm.

"Blaze, set for breach, left side stack, go. Brooklyn, Nova, you're point." Nova and Brooklyn stationed themselves in front of the huge stone slab, and Blaze, using one of his plasma darts pushed into the wall, shattered it, leaving the way clear. The group rushed inside then, and Brooklyn used his stone powers to close off the gap.

And suddenly, all was quiet...

"Man, took you guys long enough." The group turned to find Spyro leaning against a nearby wall, smiling, with Cynder next to him of course. A smoking hole had been formed in the ground, where Spyro had used his earth powers to breach. The inside was a stark white, in high contrast to the exterior rocky wall. It seemed more like a lab, till Katana spotted the strangely twisted instruments lined neatly along the wall. The torture lab sent a chill up her spine.

"Come on, lets move. Alpha squad, standard urban procedure." It didn't take long for them to realize how massive the place was. There was room for the largest of creatures, all the way down to the tiniest manweresmall, and every type of device for torturing available. At last, they reached point where one of them shouted out.

"I have it! Prisoner Alpha and Beta! Scheduled for termination, maximum power! This is them!" It was Frost, in roughly the center of the facility. When they had all gathered everyone, Blaze drew out another plasma dagger.

"Hang on Blaze. Katana, what if we're walking into a trap?" Cynder said suddenly, "To be honest,t his seemed to easy. And if I know Malefor, he'd probably use Ezio as bait."

"Trap or not, we still have to do it!" Nova said suddenly, "I'm tired of waiting, this has got to be done, and done now."

And with that, she flung her weight against the door, and it fell easily, with broken hinges. The room inside was different from all the others. The center was made up of a massive bowl with a ceiling higher than the outer ring, which had glass in front of it for viewing. The outer ring went all the way around, but a smaller room was on the far side. It looked like a small control room. There was another door, made of glass, directly opposite them, for accessing the bowl. Nova ran forwards, flinging herself into the door. IT didn't break, but it flew outwards with a bang.

And the Ezio and Kali were chained to the floor, one right next to the other. Nova ran up to Ezio first. The two were wearing small cloth bags on their heads, but they conformed tightly to the face and skull, showing every detail. Nova ripped the bag off, and Ezio gasped suddenly, his eyes snapping open. There was no pupil in his eyes, but rather just all iris, as if his eyes had glassed over. The dragon closed his eyes, shook his head, and opened them again, and he was fine. He could see everything, but he saw the dragoness in front of himself most clearly. She leaned upwards, and kissed him lightly, stroking the back of his head, but he broke the embrace quickly.

"Get that thing off Kali now. It's pain beyond words. And then get us out of these chains." Nova ripped the hood off Kali, whom reacted similarly to Ezio, a gasp of breath, and then shaking off the effects.

"Man, that was worse than last time..." She muttered to herself.

"Whats it like?" Nova asked curiously.

"Forget that, Malefor's here. Nova, get me out of these chains, I can't fight like this." He said quietly, almost in a whisper. The chains didn't take long to come off, on both Ezio or Kali. Nova turned towards the exit to lead them out...

Except there was no exit...

The glass had been tinted on the outside, so they couldn't see in. Nova didn't remember it being tinted when she came in. She took one step forwards, and then a bright red dot appeared on the ground, and moved, quivering, upto her chest. Then another, and another. Soon hundreds were on her, in various places. She turned to Ezio, whom had similar dots all over him. Kali was of the same likeness.

Ezio didn't hesitate, he grabbed Kali by the legs, jumped, and tackled both females at the same time, throwing a vertical convexity shield up in one direction, and another slanted over them. The sudden wall of rapid fire bullets pounded on his shield, making his already low energy wan to a point where the energy shield flickered but came back up. The ricocheting bullets absolutely destroyed the surrounding glass, Spyro was also holding a convexity shield up, defending Alpha squad. Cynder had even layered a shield beneath his. The glass on the control room had also been destroyed, and Ezio saw a purple tail that was all too familiar slip from the room. There was a loud clang, and blast shields went up all around them, containing them inside the room.

"Spyro, help, we need out!" Nova cried out to the group above as Ezio's shields dimmed more and more. Nova felt something wet, and looked down to find that she was hit through the ankle. Ezio however, had been hit in his gut, right by his leg. His muscles were twitching violently. The bullets were still leading up on their relentless barrage.

"Hang on Nova, were trapped! We can't use our elements on these walls, it's just absorbed! Katana and Brooklyn are working on it!" He said over his radio, then he re-tuned it and spoke into it again.

"All units, this is Leadership. Primary enemy has arrived, all units are ordered to retreat. Ariel squad, we are under heavy firepower, requesting close air support. Follow the emergency beacon!" The response was fuzzy.

"Roger that lead, ariel does respond, we are in retreat, coming to cover your escape vector." There was a massive BOOM, and Nova saw the walls shudder, taking the weight of whatever ordinance was being thrown against it. Another boom followed, then another. The light dragoness looked up too see Katan take a mighty swing, and then the wall of metal cracked. There was a final boom, and the two dragons were thrown backwards, as the wall bent outwards, both picked themselves up. Both looked like they were hurt.

A final explosion reported, and a chunk of the wall flew outwards, impacting on Ezio's shield in the center. With that, the dragon collapsed, and the shield died. The piece of metal though had actually flown over them in an incredible bit of luck, and the bullets were ricocheting off the outside, making the din inside rather loud. Nova grabbed Kali by the tail, whom had been trying to stay inside Ezio's shield, and pulled.

"I need help moving this thing!" She said. The two dragonesses heaved themselves against the slab, and it inched forwards. As it moved more and more, it became easier and easier. Finally, a convexity shield was seen passing through the inside, and when they were on the other side, , Nova turned upwards, and punched with all her strength, and the dome lifted enough for a green claw to grab underneath and lift even higher. Nova dragged Ezio out, and Kali followed. Everyone else except for Spyro and Brooklyn were gone, the others having gone through the breech.

"We gotta move! Go guys, get out!" Spyro fed a bit more energy into the shield to keep it up longer and then jumped through after everyone else, jumping to the side as well. As soon as he was out, the bullets stopped flying.

The group ran back to the entrance, Spyro shouting into his mic all the way, giving orders. Nova was supporting Ezio, with the help of Kali and Frost, whom was trying to patch him up.

"God it seems like I just trade one type of bad luck for another!" He said, as they rounded the final corner and came t the blast door Brooklyn had thrown up.

"Got it! That should do Ezio. Try and keep weight off of it!" She said as Brooklyn lowered the earthen shield, exposing them to the elements.

Of course though, Malefor was waiting.

"Took you people long enough!" He said, exposing the burnished steal of a spearhead..."

"Damnit Ezio, you just had to go and open your mouth, didn't you?" Nova whispered in his ear...


	17. Chapter 17

"GO GO GO" Spyro shouted back over his shoulder. He had expected this, and he knew what he wanted to do. However, one thing that did worry him was that blade that the dark master had clutched in his very capable claws. He hadn't used any breath attacks, only melee. But he kept trying to drive it into Spyro. Spyro wasn't sure what that thing could do, but if Malefor chose it over his breath attacks, then he could guarantee it wouldn't tickle.

The dark master lunged at Spyro again as alpha squad stumbled through the underbrush of the forest, trying to retreat. Alpha squad was slowly putting distance between themselves and Spyro, trying to get away from Malefor.

Frost had to leap out of the way suddenly as the earth in front of her exploded, a supersonic shell, nearly tow feet in diameter, impacted directly in front of her. The shadow forces had been able to salvage some of their artillery a little while ago, and the sounds of the forest were shattered by explosive debris falling from the heavens. Brooklyn several times had to dive at someone and shove them out of the way as a shell hit directly where they had been moments before.

Spyro ducked again as the lethal blade in Malefor's claws sliced through thin air, the deadly edge humming with the wind. Ezio knew what it was, he had no doubt about it, he had known since he had felt the cold steel on his neck.

Now Spyro was only inches from a horrible death, and he had no idea. Ezio was just waiting for the roar of triumph from Malefor...

"SPYRO, GET OUT OF THERE!"

"You go first!"

"SPYRO! YOU DO-" It was slow motion. Ezio saw the blade plunge a small amount into his side, just barely scraping Spyro's flank as he dodged. Spyro's eyes went dull and Grey, and his body just crumpled to the ground, with a bright light swirling around the blade, and then like a fountain going in reverse, was sucked into the tip, where it was held shining.

Malefor turned and flew towards the sky, grabbing Spyro's body, and forming a portal high up in the atmosphere. Ezio felt something brush against his side as a black figure rushed past him.

"Cynder!"

"Get back here you - "

Ah – well you get the point. I dare not repeat the rest of her phrase. Lets just say it was colorful.

Seconds later, Ezio felt a second body brush against him and saw a white figure rush by. Ezio swore explosively.

"Everyone else stay here!" He said, jumping up into the sky. He knew they wouldn't listen, but he said it anyways. With that, one burst of light took him to nova's speed.

"You four stay here on the ground! NO I MEAN IT!" Katana shouted back as she hovered above the others, "The rest of our forces are going to need someone to lead the retreat!"

"What if we struck back?" Frost shouted back up at the dragoness.

"HELLO! MALEFOR HIMSELF IS LEADING THEM!"

"Not anymore he's not. As I see it, he's retreating!" Katana snarled down at the ice dragoness.

"Do what you wish at your own peril! I soar with Spyro!" She responded, climbing even higher.

"As do we! We'll regroup and drive inwards again! May you be carried upon the Ancients winds Katana!"

"And may his diving power be with you as well! FOR EARTH!" With that, the time dragoness pulled a sharp immelman and headed off towards the developing fight. Cynder had engaged the dark master already, whom looked as if he were lazily fighting her off. Katana delved into her element and struck at that moment, about half a mile out, blasting through the sky at about 15 times the speed of sound, her scales heating up quickly, she was nothing except a meteor that hit malefor in the chest, driving the dragon backwards.

Both Ezio and Nova had cloaked by now, and were striking quick and fast at point blank range with their light elements. Malefor was swinging wildly trying to catch one of them.

Ezio could hear the grunting and panting of both Malefor and Nova's exertions, although Nova's was hushed to try and keep her position concealed. Malefor was going ballistic now, but he was showing no signs of wear and tear, no matter how much power Ezio put into his elemental attacks. He had long ago exhausted his magical energy supply, and was now using melee attacks to try and grind the Dark Master down. Despite the fact that his tail spade could rip open sheet metal, and his claws could grind through the toughest of stones, he could not dent the dark masters shield, even when sheathing his claws in convexity.

They hadn't been in the fight for very long when Cynder shouted at him.

"EZIO! CHECK SIX!" It meant he was in deep shi-

The world went dark all of a sudden as the unknown enemy attacked. He knew he had seen this force before, but he couldn't remember where, not until some sharp object walloped him in the gut and drove him skywards a good fifty feet, away from the fight. However, it was when he opened his eyes that he got the real shock.

He was surrounded, by thousands of shadow dragons. Not even that, millions. He knew what this was, most of them were illusions. Only one was the real deal. All at once, the not-dragons lunged at him, and at the last second, he felt something tug him out of the way. Upon opening his eyes again, he found the world back to normal, Katana having grabbed him under the arms ad yanked him out of the shadow generals lethal strike. Ezio nodded at the time dragoness, whom turned to help Nova and Cynder. The shadow dragon himself turned to Ezio. Punching his fist into his palm, he cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck.

_iShadow strike./i_

"I've been waiting for this one for a long time Ezio. Ever since I saw you born, grow into the monster you've become."

"I've never met you before in my life, and I guarantee I'll never meet you again." Ezio said, charging up the convexity over his clenched paws, and shrouding his muzzle and teeth in the power.

"Quite the contrary. I have watched from the shadows for millenia now. And now my waiting has finally paid off." Ezio shot forwards. The dragon however didn't move an inch, but right as Ezio reached the dragon, he phased his torso into shadow, and Ezio's hand slid right through. He overbalanced, and as he did so, the dragon grabbed his wing in his teeth and shook violently. Ezio felt the outermost wing rib snap clean in half, and pain lanced up into his shoulder.

Ezio kicked upwards into the dragons stomach, and again, hit nothing but shadow. The dragon phased his body back into the real world with Ezio's leg still inside. The dragon rolled and turned at the same time, so that Ezio's leg was held in an awkward position,and then flipped violently, snapping the wrist clean in half as well. Finally, The dragon turned back again, phased out his torso so that Ezio's arm was free to move again, and kicked so hard Ezio felt the collarbone fracture. The entire series of moves was completed in about ten seconds.

After that barrage, he no longer had the strength to stay alive for much longer, much less stay alive. The trip down was nasty, but Ezio was able to push through the immense pain, glide half-way, and then a tree took most of the impact with the ground.

Ezio turned to look up at the sky, and saw the shadow dragon then turn and attack Katana, whom was moving so fast she was just a blur around Malefor.

Nova however, was getting tired. The shadow dragon attacked with the same ferocity as when he did on Ezio, using a shadow strike as his leading attack. Katana fell from the sky quite quickly. The shadow dragon then however turned on Cynder, hoping to disable her. Nova saw the attack coming at the same moment Malefor took a swipe at the female.

Ezio saw the blade flash. He even heard the lances whistle of death cut through the air. The blade sunk into the back of Nova's neck, and Ezio saw a glint on the front as it protruded from the other side. Had she not been there, the blade would have sunk into Cynder's chest.

Ezio heard the scream of pain from his beloved. He saw her fall from the sky as well.

When the purple dragon looked back on that incident, he never knew what he had thought. He wasn't sure whether he had felt no emotion, or every emotion all at once. The mixture was dulled by the sight of the female he loved falling from the sky.

She landed with a dull thump on the ground, trees also mostly breaking her fall. Ezio dragged himself over to her.

"Nova?" She opened her mouth once, cleared her throat several times, and then tried to speak again.

"Hey Ez. Sorry about that, but I couldn't just stand by and watch." She said, the life fading from her eyes fast. Ezio placed a paw over her chest, and despite his low energy and extreme exaustion, forced life into her.

For some reason though, he couldn't keep her alive. The light from the dragoness was fading fast.

"No, Nova, I can't live without you!"

"I know you can. Ah Ez, there's so many words I wish I could say. But life goes on with the way it is, not the way we wish it too be. So I must say this: I Love You."

Ezio leaned down and kissed her then, "I love you too."

"Stay safe, and I'll see you in a few years." The life continued to drain for her eyes, until finally, they went gray, her body stopped emitting a glow, and at last her body turned to smoke, and drifted away on the wind.

The only thing left was the blade. It seemed unreal to Ezio as he gripped it by the handle and ripped it from the ground. Holding the weapon that took the life of one you loved...

Ezio knew other things happened. He could later recall seeing Frosts face, remember the medic talking to Cynder and shaking her head...

At some point he lost consciousness. His dreams were never very vivid, always featuring spineless creatures of the shadows whom he could never identify. In the last one, finally, Nova came to his aid. She whispered in his ear as she drove the shadows off.

"I love you." She had never actually said it before. He had known that she did love him, and he had loved her, but because of the war, he had held back, as had she. They didn't want the same situation as Eclipse and Thunder. Now though, things were different.

He felt nothing like the young man he had started out as four months ago...

Finally, one night, he woke up. It was early morning, that much he knew. It was cloudy, and there was a new moon. Nothing gave off light. The only way he knew he was awake was because of the gentle brush of wind along the ground.

"Hello?" Ezio whispered into the night.

No answer.

Suddenly, there was a low whisper of a voice, as whatever was out there responded.

"You are alone."

"Excuse me?"

"There is no one here for you. It won't be long now young Ezio."

"Malefor, I know it's you! Show yourself!"

There was a slight snicker, "There are far worse things too fear than some pathetic tyrant. You are in over your head ezio, and son you will find out, there are far worse things than death."

"Like what?"

"Beware young one. You are about to embark on a journey through the vastness of evil. Malefor was just a taste of whats coming. And the best part is..."

"Is?"

"You are alone." The voice, whatever it was, snickered. A chill, from nowhere ran up the legendary dragons spine.

"You are condemned..."

"It is time to wake up Ezio." the voice whispered in his ear. Ezio was starting to wonder if he was going nuts, hearing voices in his head. Ezio woke up to a brilliant sunrise over the sea. Frost was watching him, Cynder was sleeping nearby. They were the only three in the camp.

"How'r you feeling?" Frost asked.

"Odd. Sad, cold, and a little odd."

"You took quite a beating coming down. However, I was able to repair everything. For some odd reason, your injuries were light. Did you use any healing powers?"

"I used the last vestiges of my strength on Nova." Ezio said, "Knowing her though, she was probably channeling the energy back into me."

Frost was silent behind him, then...

"Ezio, I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Ezio said, getting up and stretching, letting the warm rays soak his body.

"Don't you feel sad?"

"I already told you, I feel anguish. But I also feel odd. I know where the cold is coming from. But it's wearing off. I think I know the odd feeling too,which I can more accurately guess at since everyone is gone. We took warfang, right?"

"Yes. For the first time ever, we started the attack, and ended it. The dragons are celebrating as we speak. The rest however I know are buried in Ignitus's study. Were trying to find out more about the Lance of Longinous."

"The holy lance?" Ezio asked.

"Yup."

Ezio looked down at his paw, and found he was still clutching the spear head in his claws. The weapon was emitting a faint glowing aura. All of a sudden, it hit him.

"Hang on."

"What?"

"The power in the blade is controlled by the user. If that's so, and Spyro's body still exists. Why does a dragons body turn to smoke and dust when they die?"

"No one knows Ezio. Some speculate that Dragons, because of their ties with the ancestors, and because tey are made of pure energy, are angels of some sort, and thus they return to heaven. Others claim dragons are oly beings. No one accept perhaps the deceased know."

"Spyro's body never crumbled..."

"That means his soul is still intact." Frost said, taping the blade.

"How do we get him out of there?" Ezio asked.

"I don't know. The book might hold answers."

"The book mentioned that there are other parts of the spear. The haft of the thing as well as the shaft and the fore-grip. But it mentioned one thing above all else. It said holding the assembled lance is like holding creation in your hands."

"That's a big responsibility."

"I'll talk to Cynder about it when she wakes."

"Psh, good luck, she's been sleeping nearly as long as you have."

"What happened?"

"Exactly what you saw. Once Nova was down, the shadow dragon held Cynder off as Malefor retreated. Once he was gone, he phased into shadow and we lost him. Cynder hasn't spoken since, but what I see is a crap-load of determination. And an increase in strength. I think she means to strike directly at Malefor. Ezio, if she goes on with this, she's going to get herself killed. And it's not going to be Malefor that does it, it's going to be herself, and an overload of power."

"Why do you say this too me?" Ezio asked, turning and raising an eyebrow at the female.

"Cause. Well, cause I trust you. Cynder is a good girl, she has a heart of gold, but if she's looking to increase her power to fight Malefor, she's just going to grow power hungry again. She's going to destroy herself trying to get Spyro back."

"So you think I should get the pieces of the lance, assemble them, and then try and kill Malefor?"

"No! By all means, don't try it. I truly believe it'll still be Spyro to fight him. What you need to do is get the pieces, assemble them, free Spyro, and then hope that Spyro wins in a fair fight."

"Great, so now I'm the leader?" Ezio said, rolling his eyes.

"More of a chosen warrior. I'll come with you of course. You might want to ask the others, but I have no doubt they'll come with you.

"Oh brilliant, so now I'm a martyr."

"No Ezio, your the one." Frost smiled at him.

"The Chosen?"

"The Chosen..."


End file.
